From production, post-production, content creation, producing, writing, directing and performing, the panel offered a wide range of information to students of diverse majors who are in Los Angeles this summer for a unique core capstone course, experiential learning, alumni engagement and community service.

Zaman, who works at the post-production house Picture Shop, shared the excitement of being in the middle of the artistry of post-production. Among Picture Shop’s most recent projects was providing color correction work on Steven Spielberg’s current film “Disclosure Day.” She is also a first-time site supervisor, mentoring summer student Hammond Sherouse at a first-time Elon Los Angeles Picture Shop internship.

Campisano, who served as a selection committee member for the first ����app�ٷ���վ�� Los Angeles Alumni Short Film Grant Competition last fall, spoke about the wide range of professional creative opportunities that await students who return to Los Angeles after graduation. Campisano is an award-winning filmmaker who often turns to the Elon Los Angeles alumni community when staffing and casting projects.

Kestlinger is a Physical Production Manager for television and feature films at SK Global Entertainment. Seawright, an actor, model, and entertainment and brand marketing specialist, currently performs at Disneyland Resort.

����app�ٷ���վ�� Los Angeles offers an exciting, immersive spring semester and summer program experience in the heart of historic Hollywood through ����app�ٷ���վ�� and National Campus Programs. Applications are now being accepted for the spring 2027 semester.

Alongside this infographic, these stories highlight some of the positive impact across campus through community partnerships during the past academic year:

• Elon receives Carnegie classification for community engagement
• Elon recognized for advancing nonpartisan student civic engagement
• Elon creates community through Special Olympics and Elon Athletics partnership
• Turning service into impact: How an Elon alumna is bringing Alamance County together
• Literary Journalism class engages Town of Elon mayor in civic dialogue
• Writing for Impact students secure funding for local nonprofit
• Showing up, growing together: Inside KING/PINK Academy’s power of mentorship
• Students reflect on service, community and connection during Fall Break
• New HealthEU course encourages students to go ‘beyond the Elon bubble’
• Elon empowers staff to make an impact in the community through paid volunteer leave

How the course works

The capstone experience spans two courses. In the winter term, GAM 4100, cross-disciplinary teams form and move through pre-production — developing concepts, building early prototypes and laying out a project plan. In GAM 4200 during the spring semester, those same teams advance through the full production pipeline: pre-alpha, alpha, pre-beta, beta, gold master and release.

Throughout both semesters, teams follow the Scrum framework — holding sprints, daily standups and milestone reviews like a professional studio would. Students take on defined roles in the development process, including programmer, level designer, environment designer, and narrative designer, and are accountable for delivering at each stage.

“I think the ultimate skills gained from the capstone experience are working under constraints and collaboration,” said Pratheep Paranthaman, associate professor of computer science and coordinator of the game design minor. “We don’t always know what technical complexities we’ll run into, or what might slow the development process. But that’s where the real learning happens — solving the unknown, working through an ambiguous development landscape.”

The games

— Angry Sea Studios

“Your Friend, Sam” is a mystery adventure and puzzle game, where players return as the childhood friend of a boy who vanished a decade ago. Collecting clues, solving puzzles, and fighting off corrupted creatures, players work to piece together what happened. The game launched on April 29.

For Aidan Spoerndle ’27, who served as a gameplay programmer on the project, seeing it go live was the payoff for months of sustained work.

“It feels really exciting to have a project that I tirelessly worked months creating actually be published for everyone to play,” Spoerndle said.

Keeping the technical scope in check, he said, was what made it achievable.

“There’s no such thing as a small game,” Spoerndle said. “The reason we were able to accomplish so much in such a short amount of time was that we kept the technical aspects enclosed in a smaller scope and allowed our narrative and art elements to exist in a larger scope.”

Carter Puckett ’26, also a gameplay programmer on the team, says the minor’s coursework prepared the team for what production actually demands.

“The minor helped me understand the full process of making a game — game design principles that make games fun, playable, and achievable,” Puckett said “In game development, you will always run into things that you are unfamiliar with or don’t know how to do. “Knowing how to do research and use online resources is essential to improving your skills.”

— InDecision Studio

“Onslaught” is an action-adventure game set in Betham, a decaying western mining town suspended above a sea of clouds. Players take on fighting toward Sanctuary, climbing and battling through vertical environments in third-person combat while managing resources against escalating enemies. It was released on May 14.

Owen Crider ’26, who served as a level designer, says the production process that never quite ran smoothly — and a team that worked through it anyway.

“We encountered a lot of bugs, and even though it seemed like every week there was something new to deal with, we always sorted it out,” Crider said. “I also learned how important it is to always be talking to your team.”

Beyond the technical work, Crider said, the program offered something harder to quantify.

“The game design program for me is really a community,” Crider said. “I’ve built lots of friendships with people who are funny and helpful. Since everyone knows the problems and how tough it is to make a game, everyone is encouraging of one another.”

Noah Gartenberg ’27 says game development also comes with intense demands.

“There are so many different parts and finding ways to conserve energy and momentum becomes extremely important despite any and all setbacks,” Gartenberg said. “You need to rely on and trust whoever you are working with, because that is the only way to make any sizable game in any decent amount of time without burnout.”

“Back In my Day,” is a strategy-puzzle game built around an unusual mechanic: time only moves when the player moves. Players guide a grandma home from work through levels that mix puzzle logic and projectile-based encounters. The game was

released on May 5.

What students take away

Several students pointed to the game design minor’s coursework — and its faculty — as what made the capstone possible.

“All of the knowledge and expertise from Dr. Paranthaman and Professor Hollingsworth helped me think through various problems in ways I never would have without the courses,” Spoerndle said.

Puckett encourages other students to add game design as a minor.

“Every class in the game design minor was the class I most looked forward to that day,” Puckett said. “I hope that if any ����app�ٷ���վ�� student has any interest in making games, they try out the game design minor because it is a great opportunity.”

Noah Gartenberg says the class left him ready for more.

“In the minor, we learned various aspects of working in modern game engines, and we learned the fundamentals of game design, in addition to how to work with others who may not come from the same disciplines as we do,” Gartenberg said.  “Many of the classes left me with a whetted appetite for more game development, more creativity, more discussion with like-minded individuals. The program succeeds at teaching how to make games — in spades.”

That breadth of games is intentional, and the program’s aim is never purely technical.

“Our goal is to make not only game developers, but also project managers — people with leadership skills in decision-making and problem solving,” Paranthaman said. “The central core of what we do is student learning, community, and creative ownership: giving students the space to build something real, together, and see it through to the end.”

Looking ahead, Paranthaman says the program will continue to grow its library of published titles and deepen the studio simulation experience — building transferable skills in project management, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and problem solving that students can carry into adjacent industries, from software development and UX design to film production and beyond.

“Publishing twelve games on Steam is a milestone worth noting,” Paranthaman said. “But what it really represents is twelve teams of students who learned that they could start something hard and finish it. That’s the skill we’re building.”

All 12 games published by Elon game design minor students are free to play on Steam.

On Friday, June 12, students enrolled in the Study USA Washington, D.C. “Capital Connections” program had the opportunity to visit the United States Capitol, where they learned more about Congress and the architectural history of the Capitol Building on a special tour organized by Jacob Stoken ’22, policy aid to House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. After the tour, Stoken sat down with students in the leader’s office in the Capitol for an extended Q&A session, where he shared insights about getting started as a Congressional staffer and provided an inside perspective on how Congress operates day-to-day. After the Q&A, students traveled with Stoken to the Rayburn House Office Building for additional conversation.

Joel Shelton, faculty director for Study USA, Washington, D.C. and associate professor of political science and public policy, and Tom Kerr, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy, joined students at the Capitol.

“I am exceedingly grateful to alumni like Jacob for supporting the ‘Capital Connections’ program in its first year,” Shelton said. “I’ve known Jacob since he was a student in my Philosophy, Politics, and Economics capstone course, and it is especially meaningful to see him thriving in Washington and to experience how generously he is mentoring the next generation of ����app�ٷ���վ�� students.”

The visit to the Capitol is part of the innovative curriculum for “Capital Connections:

Power, People, and Place in Washington, D.C.,” is a place-based capstone seminar in the Elon Core Curriculum that integrates classroom learning and direct engagement with D.C.’s institutions, cultural sites, and neighborhoods. Now in the fourth week of the nine-week program, students are busy interning in public and private sector institutions across the D.C. metro area, engaging with alumni, and attending special events and programming around Juneteenth and the upcoming 250th Independence Day celebration. This weekend, students will attend the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s widely acclaimed production of Othello and will join a special tour of Klein Theatre led by Company Manager Morgan Engle ’22.

Students interested in this experience for summer 2027 may begin applying on Sept. 1. For more information about the program, contact Anna Smith, director of Study USA.

Cayden Tirak ’28 and Myka Thomas ’27 are the second and third ����app�ٷ���վ�� students to receive the award, following Jules Levanti ’25 in 2024. Tirak is also the youngest ����app�ٷ���վ�� student to receive the award.

“It is really exciting to have won this grant, and the funding will be able to help me take this research project further,” said Tirak, who is an astrophysics major and Honors Fellow studying “green pea galaxies” and the black holes at their center. “Being able to say I won a research grant for my undergraduate project is a huge privilege and will help me in the future pursue my dreams of doing research as a career.”

Tirak, who is from Lincolnton, North Carolina, is mentored by Chris Richardson, associate professor of astrophysics. Richardson says this achievement reflects her ambition.

“I am beyond thrilled for Cayden to earn this very competitive award, as it not only rewards the hard work she put into crafting the proposal, but will also enable her to create new opportunities to grow as a researcher,” Richardson said.

Thomas, an astrophysics major and minor from Annapolis, Maryland, is using the James Webb Telescope’s OutThere survey to identify and group galaxies to build a catalog of these galaxy groups and study how they evolve.

“It feels incredible. Receiving this award opens up so many doors, from attending conferences to connecting with others in the field, and it’s validating to see how much work I’ve been putting in paying off,” Thomas said.

Zack Hutchens, assistant professor of astrophysics and physics, says earning this award is a “serious scientific achievement” for Thomas.

“Writing a proposal of this nature requires the student to carefully identify an open research question, design a feasible yet ambitious timeline and persuasively present the scientific case for answering it,” said Hutchens. “The award also speaks to the novelty of the work Myka is leading with JWST-OutThere. OutThere is one of the largest survey programs on the Webb telescope, and I am quite proud to bring it to Elon for students like Myka to engage in.”

The 12 Undergraduate Research Scholarship awardees receive $8,000 to spend on research. N.C. Space Grant is a state-wide network of North Carolina higher-education institutions, industries, government entities, educational programs and nonprofit partners with NASA-related interests. The organization works to promote, develop and support space-related STEM research, education and public outreach.

“We’re proud to assist these undergraduate students as they begin their research,” said Sandy Canfield, assistant director of NC Space Grant. “Increasingly, we are seeing students integrate AI and machine learning into their work, which echoes emerging NASA and industry priorities.”

����app�ٷ���վ�� and the School of Communications will welcome its fifth Emerging Journalists Program Immersion cohort to campus on Monday, June 15, to kick off 12 days of hands-on journalism instruction. The 18 high school students will arrive to Elon from eight states.

“At a moment when trust, information and news literacy feel more important than ever, it’s encouraging to spend time with students who care deeply about reporting and serving their communities,” said Kelly Furnas, EJP curriculum coordinator and associate teaching professor of journalism. “Every year, this program leaves me optimistic about the future of journalism.”

The university is funding the program, allowing another group of students to develop and enhance their skills in reporting, writing, multimedia storytelling, leadership and media management. Beyond instruction, the students will collaborate as members of a working newsroom, producing professional web content, a newspaper and a television news broadcast, as well as tracking audience engagement metrics.

The Immersion experience also features several off-campus activities. The students’ schedule includes media tours of WUNC News and WTVD-TV in Durham. They will meet with state Rep. Jay Jeffers at the North Carolina State Capitol, visit the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, and enjoy a Winston-Salem Dash baseball game.

“One of the most encouraging parts of leading the Emerging Journalists Program is getting to work with students who care deeply about thoughtful and ethical storytelling,” said Colin Donohue, EJP program director and an assistant professor of journalism. “It’s rewarding to watch them grow as journalists and collaborators, and their enthusiasm reminds me why this work matters.”

Students will earn four hours of college credit for completing the Immersion experience and be paired with an ����app�ٷ���վ�� student mentor, who will offer guidance and assistance as students work on their own projects back home and prepare their college applications.

The program, established in 2021, is designed to educate high school students who are interested in pursuing careers in journalism and the media industry. This year, 192 high schoolers from across the country applied to the program – a record number – and all were invited to participate in the virtual Exposure experience in the spring.

“The students who apply to EJP are already asking thoughtful questions about journalism and impact,” Furnas said. “Our goal is to give them the foundational tools, mentorship and newsroom experience to start answering those questions in their own work.”

Related Articles

• Strategic multifaith engagement shapes the Elon campus experience
• ����app�ٷ���վ�� students and faculty extend multifaith engagement to the community

One of the central goals of ����app�ٷ���վ�� Multifaith Strategic Plan is to “support opportunities for multifaith learning and engagement for all members of the Elon academic community,” including through academic opportunities. While many students at Elon may take a single course during their time at Elon that focuses on the study of religion or spirituality, a select group of students specializes in academic multifaith learning: religious studies majors.

Last month, 11 students graduated from Elon with degrees in religious studies, the largest number of Religious Studies majors graduating in a single year since 2012.

“The number of majors in our department has grown substantially over the last several years,” said Geoffrey Claussen, professor of religious studies and chair of the Department of Religious Studies. “Students seldom come to Elon planning to major in religious studies, but students often take courses during their first year that whet their appetite for further learning. They are able to recognize how the critical study of religion helps them to understand the world, and they appreciate the mentorship and community that our department offers.”

Religion is anything

The course that hooked Tracey McCarty ’26 on religious studies was “Religion and American Popular Culture,” taught by Andrew Monteith, and explores how religion can be found in many unexpected places in popular culture and imagined in radically different ways.

“I was taught a very specific concept: religion is anything,” McCarty said. “This was a game-changer for me. To understand religion not as a cohesive and strict definition, but as this conceptual ball that can be shaped in any way. Seeing religion as not an institution, but as a thing that a single person can define for themselves, was beautiful.”

One of the goals of ����app�ٷ���վ�� Multifaith Strategic Plan is to develop courses that “support student learning about diverse religious, spiritual, and secular traditions and identities.” In the Religious Studies department, these include “traditions” courses that explore how sets of traditions often viewed as static religions are characterized by significant diversity and can be depicted in very different ways.

Tess Trayner ’26 explored the diversity of Buddhisms in “Buddhist Traditions,” taught by Pamela Winfield.

“We traced Buddhism from its founding more than 2,000 years ago through its development across Asia and into the West, and Dr. Winfield refused to let us treat any of it as exotic or static,” Trayner said. “The unit on Orientalism and Buddhism in America helped me better understand the decontextualizing nature of mindfulness apps, yoga studios, and how to approach the version of Buddhism most familiar to American audiences. Learning to see Engaged Buddhism as both an authentic tradition and a phenomenon shaped by Western projection gave me tools I now reach for constantly – tools for noticing whose version of a tradition gets centered, and why.”

Another Traditions course, “Jewish Traditions,” taught by Claussen, featured opportunities to role-play debates about how Jewish tradition should be understood. In this class, Trayner had the opportunity to step into the shoes of thinkers with whom they sympathized and others whose views they found reprehensible.

“I discovered that wrestling with viewpoints I disagree with sharpens both my disagreement and my empathy,” Trayner said. “It is one thing to read a Jewish thinker. It is another to inhabit them long enough to understand how their historical moment shaped what they could imagine.”

Multifaith at home and abroad

����app�ٷ���վ�� Multifaith Strategic Plan also commits the university to developing “pathways for experiential and engaged multifaith learning,” including through study abroad courses that “support engagement with global religious communities.”

Trayner had a significant learning experience taking “India’s Identities,” a course taught in South India by Amy Allocco and Brian Pennington. The course “deconstructed what I thought I knew about Hinduism, and rebuilt it with a critical emphasis on vernacular practice and the lived religion of regular, everyday people. As such, the class refused the traditional classroom format. Instead, Dr. Allocco’s deep roots of connection in Chennai meant we sat in living rooms with the most incredible people.”

Students have also been equipped by their Religious Studies coursework to engage with communities closer to home. Alyssa Carney ’26, for example, volunteered at the Burlington Masjid, teaching English to newcomers. Experiences of working with displaced people led her to propose a new unit for her “Engaging Islam” course, taught by Ariela Marcus-Sells.

What makes this course unique is its ‘build your own path’ structure, which allows students to shape the direction of their learning based on their interests and experiences, Carney said.

“For me, it created an opportunity to connect my volunteer work with my academic inquiry. As I was working closely with migrant communities, I became particularly interested in the topic of displacement within Islam. This led me to propose a unit based on a textbook chapter, ‘Refugee Horizons,’ which focuses on the experiences of Muslims in Myanmar, particularly the Rohingya,” Carney said “Through this unit, I explored how the Rohingya negotiate their Islamic identity in the face of systemic violence and ethnic cleansing, deepening both my academic understanding and my connection to the people I work with at the masjid.”

Advancing Equity

The Multifaith Strategic Plan also directs Elon to “explore new modes for student learning about religion and race, especially in connection with the Advancing Equity requirement.” The Religious Studies Department offers multiple courses each semester that meet that requirement.

This spring, Trayner took an Advancing Equity course titled “Religion, Race and Resistance,” taught by Sheila Otieno. Through courses such as this, Trayner said, “the department has prepared me to take real questions into the world. Dr. Otieno’s course gave me a framework for connecting religious and racial construction to the systems that shape American life, and how I can become a more intentional and thoughtful participant in America’s futurity.”

McCarty shares that their understanding of race and religion were shaped by studying Judith Weisenfeld’s “Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake” in the religious studies senior seminar, taught by Marcus-Sells, exploring “how racism in America not only shaped psychiatry but also how Black religion is viewed. This perspective of religion as a political force in the world made me more knowledgeable about how the current society we’re in was created.”

McCarty found that the department provided an inclusive space for exploring interesting and challenging questions.

“The department has always been welcoming to anyone who has joined,” McCarty said. “I’ve been able to form great connections with those in the department, and they’ve been incredibly open to accepting diverse worldviews.”

Carney connected her experience as a religious studies major with the larger institutional objectives found in the Multifaith Strategic Plan.

“The Religious Studies Department at ����app�ٷ���վ�� actively advances the goals of the multifaith strategic plan. It does so not through a single initiative, but through an ecosystem of mentorship, community engagement, creative coursework and genuine care,” said Carney.

Trayner emphasized the importance of Religious Studies in the current political climate.

“Thanks to this department, I’ll leave Elon with a degree in religious studies and a much harder-won inheritance: the habit of holding complexity, the conviction that ordinary people are experts on their own lives, and the trust that careful, plural study of religion is exactly the kind of preparation this fractured moment is asking of us,” said Trayner.

This story is the fourth and final in a series of stories focusing on ����app�ٷ���վ��’s Multifaith Strategic Plan.

The article, “,” was co-authored by Jennifer Stephens, director of Academic-Residential Partnerships and assistant professor of education; Jill McSweeney, assistant director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning and assistant professor of wellness; Nina Namaste, professor of Spanish and assistant director of First-Year Seminars in the Elon Core Curriculum; and Brandy S. Propst, director of Elon 1010 and assistant director of Academic Advising.

The collaborative nature of this work is, in itself, a unique reflection of Elon’s approach to the first-year experience, as it brings together offices across academic affairs and student life to create a unified and campus-wide ethos to the first-year experience, which they argue is essential but often missing in institutional approaches to the first-year experience.

The piece explores how institutions should view the first-year experience as a culmination beyond first-year seminars, and that in doing so, it requires us to see this as a unique pedagogical context that differs from teaching students in their sophomore to senior years of college. The authors present a framework for faculty development in First-Year Pedagogies, incorporating CATL’s Teaching for Equity and Inclusion work, and faculty, staff, and student data at Elon. The framework asks educators to think intentionally about who they teach, what they teach, and how they teach, all within a commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusivity.

The article outlines how other institutions can put this framework into practice, by sharing how over the last two years, Elon has developed specific faculty development opportunities to bring together faculty and staff from across first-year experiences (e.g., residential learning communities, gateway major courses, advising seminars). The goal of this work has been to build shared values, language, and classroom strategies focused on preparing students to be engaged, autonomous, and self-directed learners during their college degree and supporting students through the numerous transitions they experience during their first-year at college.

This work reflects why Elon has earned national recognition for the first-year undergraduate experience and emphasizes the importance of uplifting and supporting staff and faculty in order to continue to best support our first-year students.

It was through the Gender & Sexuality Living-Learning Community that Lagunes Flores discovered something more: a community that helped her realize she wasn’t “just another student,” but someone who mattered deeply to the people around her.

“It made me realize that I played a bigger role than I initially did,” Lagunes Flores said. “I thought it was just going to be, ‘Oh, another first year,’ but it made me realize that I mattered a lot more than what I thought.”

What began as a search for belonging has evolved into a commitment to help others find it, too. That transformation started the day she moved to campus.

A journey of self-discovery

Lagunes Flores’s journey began during a Phoenix Friday event, where she experienced a sense of belonging and purpose after meeting another incoming student who encouraged her to apply to the Gender & Sexuality LLC. The two would later become roommates.

“I thought to myself, ‘Well, okay, at least I’ll have one friend at Elon and a roommate I know I can trust,'” said Lagunes Flores, who joined the university community through the Leon and Lorraine Watson scholarship in the Odyssey Program.

What she didn’t know at the time was that the connection would help shape the foundation of her first year of college. After settling in on move-in day, Lagunes Flores and her roommates gathered the pride flags they had brought for their shared living space.

“One of my roommates was like, ‘Before putting them up, do you want to just go outside or go in the hallways and run with them?'” Lagunes Flores said.

Carrying their flags through the residence hall, she and her roommates celebrated the start of their first year and the community they had established. For Lagunes Flores, this moment meant so much more than celebrating move-in day.

“That was the first time I had actually experienced a sense of community with other queer people,” she said.

Growing up in a Native American community in Lumberton, North Carolina, Lagunes Flores had few opportunities to explore many of her intersecting identities.

“The only identity that I really got to explore before undergrad was the money struggles and things like that,” she said.

Elon became a springboard for self-discovery, helping her embrace parts of her identity that had remained largely unexplored. That journey included gaining a deeper understanding of her queer identity. Experiences and friendships with fellow students led her to the support and community she needed.

One of those experiences came during a Drag Extravaganza event hosted by the Gender and LGBTQIA Center (GLC), featuring drag star Stormie Daie, who invited audience members to celebrate diverse identities and encouraged them to cheer when they heard one that resonated with them.

“That was the solidifying moment where I was comfortable in my sexuality,” Lagunes Flores said. “That was when I found my label.”

Building a foundation of belonging

Beyond helping her explore her identity, the Gender & Sexuality LLC also connected Lagunes Flores with mentors who would shape her academic and professional journey. Among them were Lauren Gulimette, an associate professor of philosophy and co-coordinator of Women’s Gender and Sexualities studies, and Luis Garay, director of the GLC, who are both co-advisors of the LLC.

Through conversations with Gulimette, Lagunes Flores discovered a passion for Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and eventually added it as a minor, alongside her major in elementary education and a minor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

Guilmette also connected her with the PACE program, which helped her secure a campus position and introduced her to opportunities she hadn’t considered as a first-year student.

Among them was an internship with Transcend Alamance, a nonprofit organization that supports transgender individuals in Alamance County. As an intern, Lagunes Flores helps write the organization’s bi-monthly newsletter.

Those who have worked closely with Lagunes Flores have noticed her growth and commitment to building community, noting that she is someone who actively creates spaces where others feel welcomed and connected.

“While Maria can at first seem shy and quiet, it has been a pleasure to watch her find community and come into their own as an active participant in the classroom and a student organizer on campus,” Gulimette said.

Garay echoed Gulimette, highlighting that Lagunes Flores’ commitment to inclusivity and building connections extends beyond the living-learning community itself.

“She brings floormates and friends outside of her residence hall to our monthly community dinners, extending our values of connection and relationship-building to others across campus,” Garay said.

Tibs Vance ‘29, a fellow student and friend, said that Lagunes Flores has a gift for helping others feel included.

“Maria is always really good at inviting me to events she helps organize or events she thinks I’ll enjoy,” he said. “Her understanding of others in her communities really helps her support and form impactful connections.

The sense of belonging and community that she found through the Gender & Sexuality LLC and with students, such as with Vance, now informs how she approaches leadership opportunities and her future career goals.

Looking ahead, she hopes to help students explore their identities and find community, just as she did during her first year at Elon. After graduation, she plans to teach in the classroom before pursuing a graduate degree and a career in higher education.

Her first-year experiences have shaped not only her career aspirations but also her understanding of belonging and what pride looks like in everyday life.

“Belonging means knowing you’re loved in a space and that space makes you feel welcome,” she said. “You being you is an act of everyday pride.”

Elon honors Pride Month stories

As part of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, ����app�ٷ���վ�� is sharing stories through Today at Elon that highlight students, faculty and staff who contribute to a campus environment where cultural identities and experiences are celebrated year-round. Throughout the month and year, Elon also offers resources and events to support the LGBTQ+ community.

Polly Cornelius, associate teaching professor of music, who teaches the Summer Opera Workshop in Florence will debut the Italian premiere of the Tony-Award winning musical by composer Adam Guettel. Produced by Cornelius, the play will take place in the historic Medici Palace in Florence on June 11-12, through a collaboration between ����app�ٷ���վ�� and AEF, ����app�ٷ���վ�� study abroad partner institution.

“For years, I have dreamed of producing “The Light in the Piazza” in Florence because the story is about a mother and daughter from Winston Salem, North Carolina who travel to Florence, Italy,” said Cornelius. “It has never been performed in Florence. We are the first. It could have been any university or organization, but it’s Elon who has the honor do this international, site-specific premiere.”

Based on the 1960 novel by Elizabeth Spencer, “The Light in the Piazza” follows Margaret Johnson, a mother from Winston Salem, who travels through Florence with her daughter Clara, who falls in love with an Italian man named Fabrizio. The musical won six Tony Awards including Best Original Score in 2005 and is known for its romantic story and score.

Cornelius, who has taught at AEF since 2018 through a summer opera workshop course, has dreamed of producing the musical to be an authentic international artistic experience for students.

Two years ago, Cornelius met with Guettel about producing the play in Florence which includes 14 ����app�ٷ���վ�� students, one Elon alumni, faculty, and professional Italian and American singers and performers. Elon alumni Gianni Palmarini ’22 returns to play the role of Fabrizio, while Cornelius will perform as Signora Naccarelli, the Italian mother.

“It’s been crazy but manageable to produce and perform a role, but I’m happy to be performing this particular role,” Corenlius said. “I’m excited for the everyone involved and to bring this famous musical to the city of Florence.”

The creative team includes Chris Rayis, assistant professor of performing arts as music director and conductor and Jacob Brent, assistant professor of music theatre, as stage director.

“This has become a huge collaboration between Elon, AEF, and the city of Florence” Cornelius said. “Our colleagues in Florence are so excited and have been working very hard too.”

The experience offers students a rare opportunity to rehearse and perform internationally while collaborating with professionals. Students in Cornelius’ course, “Opera in Italy: The Global Citizen Artist,” also take an Italian language course.

“This first opera was performed in Florence, Italy, so it’s especially meaningful to perform and study there,” Cornelius said. “Students are meeting Italian artists, performing alongside them, and learning about the Florentine culture.”

In addition to ����app�ٷ���վ�� students performing in the ensemble, music theatre majors Addyson Reese ’28 will play Clara Johnson and Mackenzie Tammara ’28 will play Franca Naccarelli.

For Reese and Tammara having a role in this musical is a dream come true.

“To perform this piece in Florence alongside incredible professionals is an absolute dream come true, and I am so grateful to be part of this project,” Reese said. “This show has been one of my all-time favorites since I first listened to the cast album at age 14. Clara has been one of my dream roles since high school and playing her in Florence is especially meaningful to me.”

The rehearsal process has been unique and included in person rehearsals with cast members in North Carolina and many virtual sessions with cast members from across the northeastern United States and Italy. The entire cast will have the opportunity to rehearse together in the days leading up to the performance in Florence.

“This show is bringing together people from all different parts of the world and allowing them to share universal themes of love and acceptance,” Tammara said. “The entire show is special to perform.”

For Tammara, her part comes with a learning curve, performing her lines in Italian. Many of her lines are in Italian and involve speaking with an Italian accent when she does speak in English. This is a challenge she has gladly taken on.

“I have spent a lot of time working on my lines since they aren’t in my native language,” Tammara said. “This is definitely the hardest score I have ever sung. It has tested my musicianship, vocal technique, and artistry. I have grown immensely.”

In May, the local cast members spent several days participating in a ‘bootcamp’ to rehearse and stage the show.

“My favorite part of this experience so far has been getting to work with the professional artists in the show during the bootcamp,” Reese said. “Jill Gardner, who plays my mom, Margaret Johnson, and Gianni are both incredible people and performers, and I have had the best time working on this material with them. I am learning so much from them and I can’t wait to keep learning once we start rehearsals in Italy.”

Gardner performed the opera house debut of this show with Piedmont Opera Company and is thrilled to reprise the role of Margaret in Florence.

Reese and Tammara are both honored to represent ����app�ٷ���վ�� in this international production.

“Elon has given me the opportunity to immerse myself in a world very different from my own, adding so much truth and variety to my craft,” Tammara said. “This is a once in a lifetime experience and I am so grateful to be living out my dream.”

For Cornelius, one of the most rewarding parts of the project has been watching ����app�ٷ���վ�� students engage in a global artistic experience with a dream cast.

“Seeing the excitement from the students, creative team, and colleagues in Florence makes me so excited,” Cornelius said. “So many people have supported this project, and after working on it for two years, it is incredible to finally see if come to life.”