Meet members of Geneseo's Class of 2017, who exemplify the college’s commitment to community, innovation, creativity, sustainability, and excellence. In the coming weeks, student writers will highlight our newest alumni and the contributions they have made, the calling they have found and discoveries made along the way. Hear what Sarah's best memory is and what Geneseo means to her.
Sarah Simon '17 seeks to instill a love of arts and creativity in everyone around her. At Geneseo, she has drawn inspiration from the underlying physical and intellectual beauty on campus to help her gain a “clearer understanding of life.”
Her career at Geneseo, she says, began in a “wonderfully catastrophic way.” She fell from her skateboard on a pathway between residence halls and fractured her skull. It was only her second semester; eventually, she had to leave Geneseo.
“I was so scared I wouldn’t mentally be there, or that I would somehow be different. I had to prove to myself that I could go back to Geneseo,” Sarah says.
This was a defining moment for Sarah. The fall emphasized life’s fragility. That next semester, Sarah returned, determined to succeed — and make an impact with her actions and her art.
This fragility and beauty are what inspires Sarah as a photographer and artist. “I wanted a way to capture moments without staging, as people look the most beautiful when they don’t have any control,” she says.
She has completed many photo projects. In one that is ongoing, she invites members of the Geneseo community to dance in an unused classroom space in Sturges Hall. When people dance, she says, they show their smiles in a pure, natural form. More than 30 students have participated and 250 photos have been compiled.
Sarah remembers comments made by a participating student well: “When you captured these moments, I thought of myself as a person. I came to see a different kind of beauty in myself.” This, says Sarah, is her goal: “to really connect people.”
Geneseo and her study abroad experience in the Czech Republic have also shown Sarah the importance of community-based learning. At Geneseo, she says, “I am allowed to think. I am allowed to make mistakes and just flourish and fail, all in the same place.”
This fall, she will apply all of her community-based and personal learning in Ecuador as a volunteer English teacher at a community college through Worldteach.
“Some graduates take time off, others work, and others head straight to graduate school,” she says. “I see volunteering abroad as a way to do all three.”
— By Kitrick McCoy '19