The SENSES Project Other News

Read our SENSES 44 Star RSO Nomination Letter!

Anand Benegal is a Whitman doctoral student, talented musician, and SENSES regular. Thank you for your kind words, Anand!

Dear SU community,

There are several student RSOs that operate within the Syracuse University community, but SENSES is truly unique in some critical ways. Namely, (1) communal integration; (2) skill development; (3) vision. In terms of (1), the university lists one of its key goals as the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion. While a commendable value orientation to profess, this is not easy to implement in practice. I have lived for long spans of my academic life (3 months+) in the US, UK, HK, and India. I've noticed that students seldom shift away from their intra-cultural/race-based cliques and form genuine intercultural bonds. (I'm quite certain you've noticed this as well in your anecdotal experience).

SENSES addresses this issue in two critical ways: a) it provides music as a superordinate platform to enable true intercultural connection to take place. There is an extensive body of research has documented that superordinate goals play a large role in erasing cultural barriers, enabling creativity, and enabling crosspollination of cultures (Chiu, Benegal, and Gries, 2022). Further to this is (b): students do not need to join a fraternity/sorority if they are uncomfortable with the concept of Greek life. (Or simply unable to do so).

In terms of (2), music production, piano lessons and guitar lessons are available for free at SENSES. I can give numerous examples, both abstract and concrete. For instance, I've - as a volunteer - taught 3 budding musicians music theory at SENSES. I have 19k views on my YouTube channel and that happened within the last 4 months due to the music production skills I learnt at SENSES. I volunteer to teach piano music part-time here. We have excellent upcoming rappers and musicians hanging out here in the lounge in a daily basis. Where else are we going to find this kind of communal learning environment? Furthermore (and this personally matters to me), this social space is highly creative and also substance-free.

In terms of (3), Amy Messersmith and Nick Piato have an outstanding vision for SENSES. While the decisionmaking is undertaken mostly by students, they stand by in their role in defining and executing the mission, as caretakers, coordinators, and cheerleaders, to enable the space to thrive as a space to inculcate creativity and provide solace to students. Having led an intercultural student community myself as a (former) undergraduate student, I know first-hand that vision without the capacity for execution doesn't mean much. Amy Messersmith and Nick Piato are two of the warmest, most inclusive people I've ever come across in all my years as an academic and a working musician. It is commendable how they have achieved being accessible, empathetic, and empowering student leaders within SENSES whilst providing effective direction and vision to enable the intercultural and creative goals at SENSES to succeed. I would highly recommend SENSES for the innovation award. I've never seen an RSO like this anywhere else.

That's a (w)rap! Nick Piato ends the year at Mercy Works with a Student Share-out.

SENSES Program Coordinator Nick Piato and SCSD educator Klass Jones facilitate a course for middle and high-school students in Syracuse called Vision Center Beats. The course takes place at the Mercy Works Vision Center, and supports students in learning how to produce music, write lyrics, and collaborate with others.

To conclude the spring session, students hosted an album release party for their mixtape. This project contained 17 tracks, with everything ranging from hype trap beats to lofi vibes to collaborative songs between students. You can hear the full mixtape here!

If you are a student or know someone who may be interested in the fall semester, please reach out to Nick Piato by email at nwpiato@syr.edu

Amy Messersmith was chosen as an inaugural Office of Diversity and Inclusion Administrative Fellow! 04

Office of Supportive Services Associate Director Amy Messersmith submitted a proposal for two podcast projects that leverage storytelling as a way to cultivate inclusion and belonging on campus. The first project is a podcast called "Lonely Campus," where students share how they initially struggled to find community and the steps they took to find their niche on campus. Project number two is a Pop-up Podcasting Studio that goes out into the campus community to collect stories from staff and faculty related to DEIA in some way. "I am so honored and thrilled for this opportunity. Thank you to VP of Diversity and Inclusion

Mary Grace Almandrez and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion for supporting this work. We are in the 'Golden Age' of podcasting thanks to the internet and advances in technology. Podcasting allows for nuanced discussion so that we might find our commonality and shared humanity by hearing ourselves in each other's stories. The Surgeon General recently declared loneliness an epidemic; the opposite of loneliness is connection. It's important to find new ways to connect across differences and I believe in the power of storytelling and podcasting to do so."