Brooke Foti is a senior, studio art major in the the School of Fine Arts, concentrating on photography with studies in video and communication design. She is also a digital arts minor. Brooke is from Meriden & Watertown, Connecticut, and graduated from Southington High School. Read more about this UConn Husky below in this Senior Spotlight!
What are your post graduation plans?: I am planning on applying to graduate schools to start my MFA in Fall 2016. In the meantime, I will be building my portfolio, looking into artists’ fellowships & residencies, and will also finally have the time to finish watching Parks & Recreation! (I plan on becoming the Leslie Knope of the art world.)
What is your favorite UConn memory?: I would have to say that the weekly UCSPAN department meetings when I first started at UCTV were particularly memorable. Becoming a member of UCSPAN was the first sense of community that I found at UConn, and I enjoyed the balance of fun and responsibility that the department had. Since UCSPAN was so tiny at the time (four people), we would often get our through our agenda very quickly and spend the rest of the time eating and talking. We would often eat pizza or burritos to the dramatic soundtrack of Inception while discussing that week’s assignments.
Why did you become a Husky?: I come from a family of Huskies, and to be honest, that was the biggest reason why I didn’t want to be one for most of my life! But as the time came to look at schools, UConn seemed like a great fit, especially since I was undecided on my major and UConn’s ACES program seemed like a great way to explore. I ended up exploring the arts, and after five years of college, I couldn’t be happier about deciding to become a Husky!!
What is your favorite place on campus?: DASL! DASL stands for ‘Digital Arts Services Lab’, and is a great resource for Art students who need to print their work. Most of the seniors have shifts at the lab, and during Senior Project it has been a great space to collaborate and get things done. Among its amenities are a mini-drumset that you are encouraged to drum on for service, a chalk board which currently has a stick-figure chalk mural of all of the UConn Photo family, and, of course, DASL Dan, who has been a huge mentor and friend to all of us over the past years.
What have you been involved in at UConn?: Most of my involvement at UConn has been split between the Art Department and UCTV. I transferred to Storrs after one year at Waterbury and one semester at West Hartford, and I found it very easy to acclimate to Storrs by becoming involved in those ways. I always tell people to take advantage of as many opportunities as you can. Whether it’s guiding Art Open House tours or spearheading a new initiative in my major, I have taken almost every opportunity that has come my way. I haven’t always succeeded at everything that I’ve tried, but I have always learned something new.
What will you miss the most about UConn?: I will definitely miss the sense of community that I have found here at UConn. The size of this university can be daunting for newcomers, but it is actually very misleading. It was easy to find a smaller community of like-minded people, and it will be sad to be away from that after I graduate!
What was your biggest accomplishment while at UConn?: My biggest accomplishment (other than graduating!) was becoming the Productions Manager at UCTV in my senior year. I had become a member there in 2011 and started out by designing posters for shows and fielding emails for a department, and I was able to finish out my career in an executive management position that allowed me to work with so many amazing people, both inside and outside of our organization.
What advice do you have for underclassmen?: Recently, a professor very simply said to me, “Stay, make great work.” For some reason, these four words resonated with me; I had to write the statement down in my Senior Project installation space as a little reminder for whenever I got tired or frustrated. I would pass on this very simple shred of advice, because I believe that the key to making good work, regardless of the field, is putting in that extra little bit of time and effort. Sometimes, staying at work an extra hour or printing ten extra photographs, especially when you feel like quitting, ends up getting you so much further than you realize.
What is one little known fact about you?: I have been riding and showing Arabian horses for most of my life, and have earned national titles in Canada as a junior rider. I compete during the summers, and am hoping to make it back to Canada in a couple of years!
Anything else?: I would just like to thank the UConn community for all of their support over the past four years! There have been so many people who have influenced me, and I cannot put into words how grateful I am for having been able to be a part of the Fine Art and UCTV communities.
Also, GO HUSKIES!!