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PROFILE OF GABRIEL URBINA

My Summer at Wesleyan

Gabriel Urbina '13 took one course during the inaugural year of Summer Session and is now seriously thinking about coming back for a second summer on campus.  He felt he was in a privileged position.  As he explained it, “taking a course with Professor Anne Greene in such a small group setting was incredible . . . In this writing workshop, not only did I develop a good working relationship with a member of the faculty, I also learned how to get into a good writing regimen and my skills sharpened considerably.” 

Life on campus during Summer Session is different.  The differences are in how classes work, the social scene, and extra-curricular activities, or rather the lack thereof.  It worked for him:  because there wasn’t much of the latter, he was able to really focus on the work of his course.  He said, “it was constantly in my head, there was no chance to let up.  It was both great and exhausting!”  He thinks he “got an incredible chance to experience a great model for a creative workshop course.” 

The small size of Summer Session forced Gabriel to get to know people he might not otherwise have met and he made some great friends.  The campus social scene revolved mostly around the houses, where Gabriel and his new friends spent time eating together and talking well into the night.  Gabriel did get off campus as well, going go to New York City to see a play and traveling to visit a friend. 

Perhaps the very best thing that happened was a carryover from his class.  One day, when the class schedule could not include the usual swapping of each other’s papers, one student announced that she really wanted to read everyone’s work—it had become a very important part of her experience.  On the spot, she arranged for a dessert potluck at her house for her classmates to come together to read and to talk.  Gabriel said they talked for hours—maybe five hours—about each other’s papers, and about the art and craft of writing, about reading, and about being creative.  Gabriel realized that one doesn’t necessarily have this kind of conversation with friends, rather one has it with colleagues, with peers engaged in the same endeavor.  He absolutely treasures that experience.