Let's Talk About Alumni Work Day
At the BFAN Reunion...
The team had an off weekend this past weekend to catch up on rest, school work, and drafting new speeches. On Sunday we spent the day working with a small group of our alumni over Zoom. Alumni Work Days are held twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. They serve as a great way to get feedback from qualified judges and stay connected with BUST members of the past. This year we had a BUST member from every generation all the way from '80s graduates up to 2022 graduates.
Who I Worked With
I had a session every hour with various alumni. I started the day by showing my Prose to 2022 graduate Alexx, who had the kindest feedback! I was also able to work with 2021 graduate Kory on my duos! Kory helped both of my duos create some new blocking. What's blocking you might ask? "Blocking" is the colloquial term for all of the movements we do during our performances. From pretending to pick up an invisible cup to taking a step to the left, it all falls under the blocking umbrella. Blocking helps us create the scene we want the audience to imagine, so it is really important to the overall effectiveness of our pieces. Then I worked on my dramatic interpretation with former BUST president, Lily Pieper. Lily currently is working for Planned Parenthood, and my dramatic interpretation is about a woman who works at Planned Parenthood, so it was a really productive session. I finished the day by working with an Impromptu champion, Sam, who was beyond kind and helpful. Impromptu speaking is a new event for me, so I really appreciated how supportive he was, and helped me understand some of the key elements of building stronger speeches.
Biggest Takeaways
Every Alumni Work Day, I am left inspired by how kind and generous our alumni are. I'm so thankful to be on a team that has a supportive and connected group of people cheering us current members on. As someone who had a really strong alumni network during high school speech, being able to have that again in college is something I am super appreciative of! Since this was my last AWD as a student, it made me excited to be an alumnus next year, and be able to cheer on the new BUST babies, who I know will do great things to carry on the legacy of the team. It's fun to look into the past and be reminded that all the hardworking we are putting in now, is based on the same kind of hard work that our alumni put in over the past four decades of Bradley Speech.
Talk Soon!
Kaity
That is really unique and awesome that the BUST team from across four decades comes together! It must be interesting to see what alum are doing now, share competition strategies, and see how BUST has evolved.
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