We are entering a slower time here on the RISD campus. The Pre College and Summer Foundation Studies Program has wrapped up and there is a brief period of quiet. This gives us a chance to prep the campus for our new freshman class and the rest of our returning students. Because the academic year is not in session, it does not mean that there are no RISD students to be found. There is great core of RISD students who stay in Providence during the summer. Many of them find great local internships, work on campus as tour guides, work on their portfolios, and enjoy the amazing summer weather! we have a chance to catch up with a RISD Illustration student, Marika Cowan, who is going into her senior year. She recently took a relaxing trip to her nearby home state of Maine with a RISD friend and we are luck that is able to share her experience:
“My name’s Marika, and I’m a senior in Illustration here at RISD. This summer, I’ve been living in Providence, working on-campus and doing personal work to build my portfolio.
Living here in Providence has been great! I was really surprised and happy to discover how many other people from RISD choose to spend their summers here. It’s been awesome being able to hang out and meet new people whom I normally wouldn’t run into during the semester. I’ve made a lot of new friends!
I’m from Maine, which is only about a 3-hour bus trip from Providence, so I’ve been visiting home pretty frequently. A few weekends ago, my friend Sarah Verity (another RISD student) came with me on one of these visits and stayed with my family and I for a few days. It was such a blast! We drove to some of my favorite beaches, went swimming and tanning, ate delicious lobster rolls, slept under the stars, and picked home-grown raspberries in my backyard. She had never been to Maine before (she’s from LA), so she was so excited to be there. And it was so much fun for me to be able to show her of my favorite places, and show her what a beautiful place Maine can be! The weather was gorgeous, and my family was really happy to have us around. That weekend was definitely one of the highlights of my summer. Hopefully I’ll get to go back there again soon, or maybe even visit Sarah sometime when she travels back to LA!”
Thanks Marika!
Leon Paul Hovanesian II
lhovanes@risd.edu
(401) 454-6310