Living Davidson Tell me why you’re at Davidson and I’ll tell you how to prepare for Doug Hick’s Inauguration.

Oh, Doug. How excited we are to celebrate you this week. I’m su re that you all woke up Monday morning, bright eyed as you remembered that this was the week! You’ve all been counting down the hours, and it’s finally almost time…it’s President Hick’s inauguration. But alas, have you been preparing properly? Maybe not, but that’s alright - I’m (once again) here to help you. Simply tell me why you chose to come to Davidson and I’ll give you some prep to do for the inauguration.

First things first - how did you even hear about Davidson?

A. You live nearby, so there’s always a couple kids who go from your school.

B. Are you kidding? Five generations of your family have gone here. You didn’t have a CHOICE.

C. You went to a private school in the northeast and for some reason all of you come here, so…

D. Is it bad taste to say Steph Curry?

Were you an early decision kid?

A. You didn’t ED, but you committed pretty quickly after you got in.

B. Yes, obviously.

C. No, and it was almost a last minute decision to commit at all.

D. Yes, but ED2.

Mostly A’s: Acquire a Doug Mug - If you don’t know what that is, great! Neither do I! It is on the schedule, though, so show up on Wednesday evening to Union and get one of these coveted items.

Mostly C’s: Get some food from the food trucks - And my favorite part of Davidson events returns! Get some free (non-commons) food. Nothing will put you more into the mood to celebrate than actually be full for once.

Did you tour before you committed?

A. Yeah, of course you visited once or twice.

B. You basically lived here before you even applied.

C. No, it was more of a “send it” situation… thank goodness it all worked out?

D. Only virtually (Yay covid, all my homies love covid).

And finally, what aspect of Davidson helped convince you?

A. The weather/beauty of the campus.

B. The community.

C. The professors/academics.

D. Something else : the sports, the food (????), etc.

Mostly B’s: Go stand outside the President’s house for a couple minutes - Honestly, this is just an option because I think it would be hilarious. Go and soak up President Hicks’ energy for a bit! It won’t be creepy at all, I promise!

Mostly D’s: Why did you even take this quiz? You and Doug are basically besties. You have the merch, you know where to get the free food, you’re over at the President’s house constantly…I can help you no more.

Check Your Answers Below To See What You Got!

See You All in Two Weeks For Your Last Quiz of The Year ;)

We Are Wildcats In Chorale

SAHANA: Considering Matthew Shepard aims to convey that light prevails over darkness and that pain can coexist with joy. Did you get this sense when you worked with the music these last few months?

BOOKER: I am a little hesitant to always try and derive some sort of joy or positive outlook from experiences and stories that deserve grief. I mean, the story of Matthew Shepard is horrible. And I wouldn’t even for a second want to consider just making it about progress in the gay rights movement. Because this was a real person who really suffered and really died and is now gone, and his family feels that loss. But I did feel a sense of joy in the pieces towards the end, which were focused on how we can move forward. And it felt less like some sort of toxic positivity turnaround and much more like a genuine way to engage with the trauma of the material.

SAHANA: What do you think you’ll be taking away from this experience?

JOSEPH: I realized just how powerful an act of activism this live performance of Matthew Shepard was. We hear about lots of horrible things that happen all the time. But by performing Matthew Shepard live, we got to consider the tragedy for two hours. And that is so rare to happen in our everyday lives. If you can get an audience to actually engage, then you’re doing something really powerful.

BOOKER: I learned that living in the Davidson bubble is a very real thing. It was a reminder that this might have been a crime that was committed 20 or 30 years ago, but there’s still stuff that happens like this today; there’s still people on this campus who get called slurs at parties. There are laws being passed now, which effectively limit the ability to talk about queerness and to be queer in public. I probably wouldn’t have been thinking about all of that as deeply if we hadn’t been doing this concert.

ALLY: I’d like to take away the sense of community that I think was built into Chorale, and was also shared with the audience.

SAHANA: We performed for one night only, which felt daunting to me in the rehearsals preceding the show because there was so much pressure to give it our all. We didn’t get any doovers. How did you all feel after the performance?

SAHANA ATHREYA ‘25 (SHE/HER)

We Are Wildcats is a human-interest column that aims to share the extraordinary within the ordinary at Davidson College and to showcase the inspiring things that make each and every Wildcat unique. If you wish to be featured or know someone whose story needs to be heard, please feel free to contact saathreya@davidson.edu! Stay tuned for future stories! This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

25 years have passed since Matthew Shepard, a young, gay student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die in a field under a blanket of stars. Five days later, Matthew passed away. The world watched and reacted, passing hate crime legislation at the state and federal level. On Friday, March 24th, 2023, the Davidson College Chorale performed Craig Hella Johnson’s oratorio, Considering Mathew Shepard, which is a compelling array of musical texts to tell Matt’s story. Roommates and Chorale members Jospeh Santi-Unger ‘23 (he/ him), Ally Harvel ‘23 (she/her), Sarah Booker ‘23 (they/them) and Nathan Goldenberg ‘23 (he/ him) reflect on this experience and what it meant to sing such important, difficult and moving music.

BOOKER: It was rough. I thought it was going to be like the other concerts. I thought I’d have a huge sense of accomplishment and a kind of euphoria. I had some of those, but I also had a pretty significant sense of utter exhaustion. I hadn’t really realized how emotionally draining it would be. During all of the rehearsals, I’ve very much just been learning the music and singing the songs because you can’t afford to emotionally engage with the trauma of what happened to Matthew Shepard every single Chorale rehearsal. But during the concert, I really did try to immerse myself in it emotionally, and really open myself up to engage with the audience and the music to really try and bring the music to life for them. And it was exhausting. I really understand why we only performed it once.

JOSEPH: That’s true, but I also felt really good after the concert, because that felt like the first Chorale concert where I could tell the audience was totally engaged with us the whole time. After the first few movements, I felt like us and the audience collectively shared a moment. And it just kept going for the rest of the concert. It was spectacular.

NATHAN: I enjoyed performing it. Afterwards, I certainly wish I could have performed it again; it meant a lot. It sort of feels a little bit hollow not still having to perform.

ALLY: Yeah, it felt like a breath of fresh air to actually perform with everybody, but I also felt kind of sad after performing, because I know that it was our last time singing all that music together.

JOSEPH: We could have come back next week and done it. And then the next week and then the next week. I don’t think we would have gotten tired of it.

SAHANA: And I hope that we do. Even if it’s not through this body of music, but just through our stories. We have to come back next week and keep retelling Matthew’s story and uplift LGBTQ+ voices by sharing new stories about what’s going on in the world today.