This post was written by Elena Goddard, fourth-semester songwriter, pianist, and music business/management student from Smithers, British Columbia. She is the executive coordinator of Berklee’s Student Government Association, chair of STAND, and a peer advisor.
(Continuation of Part 1. Read it here.)
When school started up in the fall, I invited fellow students to join the committee and help lead projects and campaigns within the initiative. I didn’t expect a huge turnout, and I guess it was because I underestimated how much this topic affects people. The first meeting brought new student faces and was filled with brilliant ideas and passion for this topic. The next meeting, those students brought more people. I had fellow Berklee peers emailing me saying they wanted to get involved but couldn’t make our weekly meeting times, so asked if they could instead join one of the projects.
We began planning an event called Twilight Induction. Our longterm vision for this event was to incorporate it into Orientation Week and show students that Berklee is a safe place for them to get help; it’s an open-minded place for them to be themselves, ask questions, and also show that they should help create an open environment. Even though we were in the middle of the semester, we held our first Twilight Induction, which consisted of speeches by members of P-Funk, some awesome mini-talks by students and faculty, lighting candles (fake ones; don’t worry, I wasn’t about to burn down Boston) that say “I stand because…” and writing our reasons down, and then reading through a list of codes of conduct we believe in at Berklee. This was followed by a performance of “Imagine”. Even though we had such a short timeframe in which to pull off the event, it was so well received and was awesome to be a part of.