Rosebud School of the Arts honours students and graduates

Laureen F. Guenther

Times Contributor

 

Rosebud School of the Arts celebrated the ROSAs – Recognizing Outstanding Student Achievement – Sept. 28, honoring their 30 students with over 40 scholarships and bursaries, and graduating four women from its four-year program.
“The ROSAs reveal the heart of Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA) like no other event,” says Maki Van Dyke, RSA’s registrar.
She’s thankful for new scholarships created this year. A new donor stepped forward, for instance, to continue an award renamed the RSA Spiritual Leadership Award.
The Lois Kenney Haskayne Entrance Scholarship was also created, awarding a total of $5,000 to one or more first year students.
Scholarships of $31,450 were awarded. An additional $2,487 went to students working at Rosebud Mercantile, and $13,235 in BMO Production Awards to students in Rosebud Theatre productions. In total, RSA students received $47,172.50 in one afternoon.
Scholarships tell the student “I believe in you,” Van Dyke says.
At the ROSAs, students meet the donors who gave their scholarships, so they give back by building a relationship.
At the ceremony, Marie Isaman spoke on behalf of other donors, encouraging students to “make a difference, no matter where you are.”
Graduate Chrissie Muldoon thanked the donors.
“Scholarships are about so much more than money,” she said. Sometimes it’s hard to get support for working in the arts, even from friends and family, but “scholarship donors embrace and affirm the authentic expressions of our hearts.”
Guest speaker Terry White, RSA board member and former University of Calgary president, told students and graduates they have potential to make a difference.
“(We live in) the best of times and worst of times,” he said, and RSA’s mission meets our need for uplifting, faith-based stories that bring healing.
Paul Muir, RSA’s education director, said the school had even more to celebrate than usual that weekend. RSA had just signed a new transfer agreement with Briercrest Bible College, allowing RSA students to transfer a full year of credits toward a recognized degree.
The high point of the ceremony was an individual address and slide show for each graduate, before bestowing the title Fellowship of Rosebud School of the Arts (FRSA).
Christina Muldoon, said Muir, is a powerful, courageous, vulnerable and transparent young woman, who’s held firm to the truth that she’s worthy and has purpose.
Muldoon said in an e-mail she’s learned “what it is to be an actor.”
She was challenged to learn that, although the students are “big fish in little ponds, Rosebud is a little pond full of big fish!” But she knows “I have great worth as an artist.”
Muldoon is enrolled in a playwriting course and auditioning for acting roles in Calgary. She’ll perform with a Calgary theatre company in spring.
Lauren de Graaf, said David Snider, is “finding her own way, her own walk with God.”
He thanked her for being so teachable.
“I have learned in Rosebud that in order to tell the story as truthfully as I can, I must bring myself fully into the story,” de Graaf said in an e-mail.
She’ll act in Rosebud Theatre’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe this winter, and act her final project, Wildwood Fire, the story of June Carter Cash, on the Canadian Fringe circuit. She also performs with the newly-formed band The Dearhearts.
“I have chosen to follow what God shows me,” she says, “because I have realized my life is not my own.”
Alix Cowman is marked by “excellent and abundant accomplishment,” Snider said.
RSA helped her overcome being “dreadfully quiet and shy,” Cowman said in an e-mail.
She loved performing her final project, The Darling Family. Cowman, another member of The Dearhearts, is pleased they recorded their first album. This fall, she’ll direct music for a student’s final project, and will be Assistant Music Director for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Sarah Spicer “aspires to a life of courage, truth and honesty,” Van Dyke said. “Anyone who knows (Sarah) is met by her calm roundedness.”
“I came to Rosebud with a lot of insecurities and fears,” Spicer wrote, “but I’m becoming more confident in who I am.” She values her solid friendships and the study trips to New York, Toronto and London. She hopes to produce more shows and to own her own theatre company. Now she’s auditioning for acting roles in Calgary.
Before graduates, students, faculty and guests moved outside for picture-taking and to Rosebud Mercantile for a four-course dinner, the Rosebud Chorale performed for the graduates.
“I want to do something that matters, something that says I was here,” they sang. “Maybe I’ll compose symphonies. Maybe I’ll fight for world peace … I know that I will do more than just pass through this life. I was here.”