Since my first semester at USC, I have been volunteering with Visions and Voices.
Visions and Voices is a university-wide arts and humanities initiative at USC that features a variety of events conceived and organized by faculty and schools throughout the university that are free for students to attend. Students are able to go to presentations by critically acclaimed artists and distinguished speakers, theatrical productions, music and dance performances, film screenings, lectures and workshops. In addition, Visions and Voices offers Explore LA events that allow students to leave campus for a few hours and experience the culture and events available in the city. Through Visions and Voices, for example, I have been lucky enough to attend discussions with people like Steve Carrel and Ira Glass, I have seen screenings of Dog Day Afternoon and Chinatown (both followed by Q&As with the screenwriters) and I have taken advantage of their Explore LA program to see the musical Next to Normal for free off campus.
Every month I meet with all the other Visions and Voices volunteers and we discuss past events and sign up to volunteer for upcoming events. This month our meeting was one I will never forget. All the volunteers were invited to see Wicked in Los Angeles in place of our monthly meeting. We went with all the people who work for the Visions and Voices program and we took up almost a row and a half of the theater. We had amazing seats and the show was fabulous!
As if that wasn’t amazing enough, we even had the chance to talk with some of the cast of the show following the performance. And of course we had plenty of time to carry out our usual meeting business on the bus. One thing’s for sure, there’s no place like USC! It was by far the coolest club meeting I have ever had!