Fall semester classes have officially wrapped up, and winter break is in full swing.
Just about a week from now it will be January, and with January comes Winter Term! When I was a prospective student, Winter Term was something that excited me a lot about Oberlin, and that was not just because it meant I never had to have a normal school day on my birthday in college. (January 17th, mark your calendars!)
For Winter Term, students get to choose a project, class, or activity of some kind to complete over a four-week period of time in the month of January. One of my (actual) favorite things about Winter Term is that the possibilities for a project are virtually limitless. This leads people to use their imaginations, and ultimately come up with projects that cover a breathtakingly wide variety of topics. To name a few examples, I have a friend who is spending his January drawing plants at home, one who is travelling across Europe writing music, and another who is making her own mini dining co-op in a dorm kitchen in Oberlin.
For my project, I’m going to do independent research on the music scene in Los Angeles, focusing particularly on concert venues throughout the area and how they collectively evolved. I’m going to spend part of Winter Term at home in New York, researching from the comfort of my laptop, and the rest in LA, visiting venues and interviewing locals who have experience with them. I have never done anything like this before, and I’m extremely excited!
Since it’s still December (Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate!), I haven’t embarked on this journey quite yet, so I don’t have much more to say about it yet. Despite this, I certainly plan to come back in a month and write about how everything went!
