French | German

JACK LLOYD | FRENCH

Photo courtesy of Katie Fox

BY OLIVIA FIELD

Senior Writer fielor17@wfu.edu

You may have seen senior Jack Lloyd toiling away at the Campus Garden or hanging out in the Office of Sustainability throughout his time at Wake — and it would make sense, Lloyd is a biology major with a minor in environmental studies. However, while he was studying genetics and cell structure, Lloyd was also fine tuning his grammar and accent through the French major. In fact, Lloyd’s love for the French language and culture has landed him the opportunity to teach English at secondary schools in Marseilles, France after graduation. “If you are learning a language, first, it is really important that you learn to actually communicate with it, but it is also really important to appreciate the tonal sounds of it and really understand the aesthetics of the language,” Lloyd explained. Having studied French in high school, Lloyd knew that it was something he was interested in pursuing once he got to college. Now, after four years at Wake Forest, he has been able to not only to follow his linguistic passions, but also study abroad in Dijon, France. “By rolling up his sleeves and working in our Campus Garden, and later in the Office of Sustainability, Jack has embodied the ideal of a hands-on, engaged liberal arts education,” shared French professor Veronique McNelly, who traveled with Lloyd to Dijon. “This guiding sense of purpose followed him to France. While studying abroad in Dijon, Jack and a classmate investigated the problem of inhumane farming practices in the European Union. Through his studies and sometimes in the practice of everyday life, Jack has shown how much can be achieved when members of a community with a shared sense of purpose are willing to teach by example, to invest time and effort, to roll up their sleeves and demonstrate commitment through hard work.” While in Dijon, Lloyd took a class taught by a charismatic French-Italian man which explored different movements and periods within the country’s art history. Courses such as this one, which focus more so on culture than just the language itself, have been among the favorites of Lloyd during his time as a French major. “It was really amazing to live with a host family. That provided me with a great opportunity to practice my colloquial French,” Lloyd explained. “Being able to be immersed in France was just an amazing experience.” This interest in French culture was the nexus for his senior Honors Thesis, which is a textual analysis of two gay publications from the 80s and 90s, at the height of the AIDs epidemic. It explores the role of the state in regards to the domain of health. According to Lloyd, the French department and the opportunities it presented only solidified his decision to come to Wake Forest. “I love how close knitted [the department] is, like some of my best friends at Wake are also French majors or minors,” Lloyd shared. “The professors are honestly incredible. They are so accommodating, they really want you to succeed and become the best student that you can be. It is really just a great environment to learn in.” When asked about his favorite memory from his time at Wake Forest, Lloyd recalled a moment from his time living in the Sustainability House sophomore year. “Right before finals week the winter of my sophomore year, there was a massive blizzard. So, I was living in the Sustainability Theme House on Polo Road and the first day, when all the snow was down, none of the roads had been cleared,” he said. “All 11 of us marched down to the Pit and it felt like we were trekking through Antartica or something. We all just had an early lunch before we went off and studied and that was such a fun memory.” When asked what advice he had for incoming freshmen, Lloyd highlighted just how much opportunity Wake Forest provides and how important it is for students to take advantage of all its resources. “Cherish your time here,” he said. “Really try to live and experience every moment, look for all of the opportunities that you can, and try to take advantage of them.”

BY KATIE FOX

Photographer foxkg19@wfu.edu

Although Riley Phillips calls Orlando, Fla. home, she spent parts of elementary school and high school living in Germany and took her first German class during her freshman year of high school in Stuttgart. Phillips graduated from an arts high school in Orlando and wanted to pick German back up at Wake Forest, so she started in Dr. Heiko Wiggers’ GER 153 class.

“[Riley] was truly one of the most creative students I have taught,” wrote Dr. Wiggers. “Her contributions were always highly original and very smart. Their Spring 2020 class was interrupted by the pandemic, and I admired how she pulled through these hard times and always strived to improve her German.”

Phillips, a German and studio art double major and an art history minor, has dedicated her undergraduate years to combine those interests. She described the German department as very tight-knit and said the professors are very invested in their students, wanting to know them on a deeper level, socialize with them, and of course improve their conversational German.

“Professors often talk about a student being ahead of their years in maturity, but I have proof! I remember approaching Riley several years ago, assuming that she was a rising senior and asking if she would like to write an Honors Thesis and in her answer, she reminded me that she was only a sophomore,” Dr. Howards said.

Phillips said one of her favorite things about the German department is how supportive they are of the interdisciplinary experience.

Ultimately, Phillips will graduate with Honors in German, and Dr. Howards said, “Finally, after years of waiting, my patience paid off with her fascinating honors study on the evolution of Berlin fashion amid the city’s changing political backdrop.”

In Spring 2019, Phillips studied abroad in Venice, Italy. That summer, Phillips received a Richter Scholarship to research multicultural influences and developments in Berlin’s fashion scene and spent the summer in Berlin, which she said satisfied her with a taste of German during her collegiate career.

While abroad, Phillips embraced street photography as a means of documentation for her research,

RILEY PHILLIPS | GERMAN

but when she returned to campus, she curated a solo artist show through the stArt Gallery’s STARTyourself program. The “Seamed|Ripped” exhibition was up in the Student Art Gallery from October to November of 2020 and exclusively featured photos from Phillips’ time spent in Berlin for her Richter research.

Phillips’ German Honors Project was influenced by her Richter research but delved further — examining fashion and youth. She recalled struggling to write the first five pages in January and thinking, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ but she made it happen.

“I just submitted 70 pages. I never would have thought that I would do that, [...] but, wow, look at this growth from freshman year,” Phillips said.

A candidate for Honors in both German and her studio art, Phillips’ Studio Art Honors Exhibition, “Unmentionables: Confronting Fantasy and Femininity”, showed in the stArt Gallery at the end of April. Outside of the classroom, she has been involved in the art department through public art initiatives such as her performance piece “babydoll” in Fall 2020, multiple contributions to student art shows and her aforementioned solo exhibition. She has also been involved with the Anthony Aston Players and worked as a costume shop assistant for the theater and dance department.

In addition to making her artistic mark on campus, Phillips was a featured designer at Vancouver Fashion Week in October 2019 with her own runway show, and her work has been published in Local Wolves and Mood Fabrics. She was also the cover story photographer for Allen & Houston Magazine. Furthermore, she had an internship pattern-drafting for Sifted Clothing, which was supplemented by her costume shop experience, and started “Finder’s Keepers” with fellow senior Meredith Vaughn, a podcast turned small business selling vintage clothing which the duo plans to continue after graduation.

When Phillips first visited Wake Forest as a junior in high school, the student Art Gallery was one of the first places she went. Although she considered many career paths, her experiences with the gallery managers through her solo exhibitions and honors projects pushed her to apply for the WFU Student Art Gallery manager position, and she’ll begin working at the stArt Gallery in Reynolda Village this summer.