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A sense of community and feeling at home is what drew recent graduate Braeden Ingersoll to Simpson College.
“I chose Simpson after my first visit on campus, where I simply felt like I was already at home walking around campus,” he said.
Ingersoll arrived at Simpson from his home in Polk City. He wasn’t sure what to do, but after being cast in the 2014 Fall Simpson Opera and Theatre collaboration of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel his first semester, Ingersoll found his place and his major with the Simpson Theatre department.
As he adjusted to college life, one aspect Ingersoll found the most surprising about Simpson was how closely knit the community is.
“I was not prepared to have my classmates calling professors by their first name and the genuine interest in our lives that they had,” he said.
Those professors influenced his academic career.
“Each and every professor in the Theatre Department had profound impact on my path during my time at Simpson,” Ingersoll said. “But two very special individuals would have to be Jennifer Nostrala & Rick Goetz (instructor of Theatre Arts) helped me foster my technical prowess and taught me to look for creative solutions to technical problems in the shop.”
While also being a student and working behind the scenes in Theatre Simpson’s productions, Ingersoll was a member of Alpha Psi Omega, the Honorary Theatre Fraternity, and served in the theatre scene shop as the UGA for two and a half years.
“These facets of my experience gave me creative outlets to continue my passions for theatre, art, and performance,” he said. “They also kept me incredibly busy, which served to make me goal driven and hardworking as we strove to meet deadlines and create incredible programs.”
For his next step in his academic and theatre tech career, Ingersoll will be pursuing his Master of Fine Arts in Technical Production at Florida State University.
For any incoming students, Ingersoll says this:
“Simpson, as any college or university, will be what you make of it, so take full advantage of what the college has to offer and enjoy the journey.”