Senior Spotlight: showcasing graduating talent

Apr 11

Apr 11 Senior Spotlight: showcasing graduating talent

Graduation is soon approaching and as seniors prepare to take on new roles in the world, they must first display what they’ve learned using their craft and present their own senior project.

Payton Altman, a senior music business manager, has begun preparation for his senior showcase, combining talents of playing piano, arranging and orchestrating.

“The subject of my senior project is about songs that have meant a lot to me from my childhood into my college life. Many of the songs I chose bring a sense of nostalgia to me. I wanted to base my project around songs that have helped to shape me and my musical taste and being those to life with my own twist on each of them,” said Altman a senior music business major.

Altman plans on producing his own five track EP featuring selections from his favorite songwriters such as Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach and Alan Menken.

“I incorporated some good musician friends of mine who I consider to be some of the best musicians on campus. I included four recent graduates of Lee: Clay Smith, Coleman Smart, Aaron Forde and Justin Mucha, as well as current students like Christian Edwards, Austin Michaw, Ryan Wommack and several other friends,” Altman said.

As a musician, Altman hopes to go into the field of studio work as an arranger, orchestrator and pianist, as well as use his gifts within a church setting.

“The entirety of my project is being recorded at the Danny Murray Recording Studio. So we tracked rhythm at the studio which is bass, piano, guitar, and drums, as well as all vocals,” said Altman. “I’m really thankful Lee has amenities like the recording studio that are open to students to our advantage, it’s really come in handy throughout the process of making my senior project something I can be proud of.”

Photo provided by Makenzie Muratore featuring her senior project

Makenzie Muratore, senior graphic design major, is using her artistic skills to display her passion for photography, specifically by capturing flowers.

“I did my layout magazine on flowers and then specifically people’s stories with flowers so it’s a lot of studio portraits and still life of different types of flowers. Some of my favorites are the warm and soft lit type of photos. I like buying flowers a lot for myself as well so that may be where a lot of my inspiration came from,” Muratore said.

With a major in graphic design, seniors can choose from a variety of mediums for their final senior project. This could be digital art photography, studio painting, or even branding projects.

Faculty at Lee University can be seen as a guide to students helping them decipher their own personal calling and future career.

“I think having professors that are really flexible with their office hours and then getting to go and ask them whatever you need to know, whether it’s a simple as ‘what do I do after college?’ has been really helpful. Professors here are open to telling their own story and directing you to resources like the center of calling and career, and giving advice on classes that may spark our interest and then going deeper into those courses for us to study,” Muratore said.

Muratore hopes to pursue a career in corporate marketing design yet also wants to pursue her passion in event photography or sport’s photography after discovering the new ways art can be seen through a lens.

Emma Sneed, senior middle grades (6-8) English and social studies education major, performed her senior project in the form of student teaching at Cleveland Middle School.

Sneed plans on using what she has learned at Lee to incorporate into a classroom setting of her own.

As Sneed’s senior project has been completed through her time as a student teacher, she has created a lasting bond with her sixth grade English Language Arts class and each student after being in her role for half a year.

“My favorite memory while student teaching has got to be my last day at my first placement. It is sometimes hard to gauge how much students are learning from you or how much they enjoy your teaching, but on this day, all 85 of my students threw me a going-away party. They got me gifts and letters, and I got a million hugs from crying boys and girls. When students tell you how much you have impacted them over the course of half a year, it makes you super emotional, and I felt extremely blessed on this day that I had gotten to know each of them,” Sneed said.

Sneed believes the classes she took throughout her college career have adequately prepared her to take on what can be seen as a daunting challenge as she graduates and begins her journey in the world of education.

“I had a few classes that I think prepared me well including the Senior Capstone with Robinson, the Exceptional Child with Sandoval, Teaching Literacy with Rosenow, and Assessments with Pope. These classes prepared me well because they were practical in their application to the actual classroom. They covered topics and concepts, but they always discussed what those abstract things look like when you are in charge of 25 middle schoolers in a small classroom for an hour,” Sneed said.

As seniors prepare to graduate and use the skills they developed throughout their college career to fulfill their individual passions, each senior project can be seen as one last chance as an undergrad to display their gifts and talents before graduation.