At my high school in rural Oregon, the East Coast was a place of legend, a place of intimidating "Academic Institutions." As I prepared to leave home for Middlebury, I thought for sure I would be faced with cold professors and cut-throat competition. But what I've found here has wiped out all those preconceptions.

The first professor to change my mindset was Su Lian Tan, with whom I've had some of my most enriching academic experiences. Last fall I took Su's Advanced Composition class, in which students compose fifteen-minute string quartets to be performed by a professional ensemble. The second movement of my quartet was inspired by salsa music, and as I worked I aimed to make it a flashy, cello-centric extravaganza. 

During one of our weekly meetings, Su listened to the second movement's cello solo and said, "This is a salsa dancer? His jeans need to be much tighter." I knew exactly what she meant: the solo had to be wild and uninhibited, but at the same time subtle. It was her humorous way of communicating this that motivated me to focus all of my effort on composing a virtuosic solo. That is Su's talent; like so many of my professors, she brings such a high level of energy and joy to her classes that students are inspired to push themselves beyond their limits. 

My quartet went on the win the class's composition contest and was performed in a special concert by the Takacs String Quartet, one of the premier string quartets in the world. As I sat listening to the group's cellist, András Fejér, whizzing through his "salsa dance" solo, I thought to myself, at what other college do composition students have such unbelievable opportunities?