Hi, my name is Jimena Fernandez and I am a sophomore at St Olaf majoring in Music and Political Science with a concentration in Statistics. My main instrument is the flute and I’m part of Norseman Band. This year I have gotten more involved in the music community by playing in the PIT Orchestra for the school musical production of Into the Woods and playing in a chamber group. Apart from that, I work as a music theory and Spanish tutor.
As music and political-science major, I have been asked several times how my majors connect. Most of the time my answer has been “I don’t know”, but when I heard about this course I figured out that politics and art can interrelate and that it would be a great opportunity to explore career interests. I was also interested in this course because I come from a country (Costa Rica) that underestimates the arts. As the Costa Rican government keeps cutting off the arts budget, it is really sad to see how the artistic institutions were I grew up are dying. By taking this course I hope to learn about the role of art in the US government, as well as the differences and similarities between the art policies in the US and Costa Rica in order to one day be able to improve the art programs of my country.
I’m really excited to explore all the museums and monuments and I’m also excited for all the tours we will go on. I’m also really excited to explore all the food places near the hotel! I’m a little nervous about punctuality because sadly I tend to be late to everything and sometimes I find it difficult to get out of bed early in the morning which makes me late most of the time.
I’m really excited to spend this month in this city learning about two of my favorite thing: arts and politics!