Looking back on what has been the most insane ride of my Penn State career, I don’t think it is possible to be more proud of what this group of dedicated students did when they found something that they wanted to change. In my four years at Penn State, I’ve never felt that the performing arts were in as good of a place as they are right now and the most integral parts of this success has been the incredible students (and advisor) who worked internally with the council.
So first, I would like to thank all of the marshals and their assistants for bringing together the incredibly diverse and talented groups that we have at Penn State and for showing me how to truly see the talent that each genre contains. Secondly, I would like to thank the communications committee for working their tails off and getting PAC on the map here at Penn State. I don’t think there will ever be a better feeling than the first time that I wore my PAC quarter zip with our new and incredible logo and realized that the brand we were just beginning to create would last for years. Next, our incredible advisor who encouraged us to dream bigger and caught everything that fell through the cracks when we let the little things slip. And finally, I would like to thank the exec team for leading the charge. There were times that I didn’t think we could reach the insane goals that we set for ourselves this year; however, you made sure that we pushed through and ended up on top. Outside of PAC, there are so many more people to thank. There is an incredible community of patrons who support student-run work, numerous performing arts organizations who have taken a leap of faith with PAC, and countless organizations and people who aren’t in the performing arts but simply share an office with us, share a friendship, or simply share the love of the stage and what can be put on it. Additionally, without the generous support from the Office of Student Affairs, the College of Arts and Architecture and the Center for Performing Arts, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Ultimately, they are the ones leading the charge towards the future of the performing arts at Penn State. However, when those forces work in coordination with PAC (as we have already seen this year) not only can we achieve great heights, but we can become a nation wide model for how to support the student-generated performing arts in a university setting. So with one award-winning a cappella sampler, one theatre preview, numerous collaborative roundtables, multiple weekend dance workshops, $3,000 worth of equipment purchased, and 17 months of experience in organizing and coordinating the arts -- the Penn State Performing Arts Council is finally hitting its stride in making the arts a more collaborative and enjoyable environment here at Penn State. It seems like just yesterday that we were submitting our intent to organize paperwork and now, as an affiliate organization with a team of 27 members, I’m excited to watch this organization grow from a new vantage point as a new team takes the lead and pushes onward to bigger and better things. Best, John Connolly
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