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In the movies, stories are not always linear. A character may wander dazed
out of a black and white farmhouse and into the crayon bright magic of the
land of Oz, or a screenplay may leapfrog back and forth in time,
occasionally with less than clear results. Sometimes real life can imitate
reel life with results that turn out to be clear and true. As is often the
case in the movies, though, it helps to be in the right place at the right
time. For Bryant Rozier, the right place was a poetry reading organized by
the Department
of English.
Rozier grew up in Fort Wayne and began at Ball State as a criminal justice major. "Watching the changes that took place in my neighborhood made me realize that I needed to be in law enforcement," he explains. "I believed that I could help improve the situation, and a degree in criminal justice would be the best way to do that."
Over time, however, he developed other interests, including poetry and film production, and took some classes in creative writing. "I started to write poems whenever I was bored. When I look back at my first effort, I cringe," Rozier remembers. But when the opportunity came up, he decided to present two poems at the poetry reading. Rai Peterson, Rozier’s creative writing professor and recipient of one of this year’s fellowships from the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry, was also at the reading, and she encouraged him to apply to the course she was offering through the center. He applied and was accepted. The center is the result of a gift of $2 million from Virginia Ball – a gift with a vision. Professors apply for grants that will fund classes organized around interdisciplinary study and geared to create a project that will offer opportunities for community learning. Two professors can receive fellowships during a semester and can enroll up to fifteen students each in the classes they have proposed. "We pulled together people with all different backgrounds to create something that not only will connect the university and the community, but will enrich the lives of all involved," Virginia Ball explains. The classes offered through the center function like capstone experiences or honors theses, and students are expected to be co-investigators in the proposed project. Rai Peterson’s course, Paris in the 1920s: The Making of Americans, lets students establish their own study plans. Rozier chose to study Charlie Chaplin because of his influence on film and his brilliance as a director. "Chaplin could tell a story using a camera, a street corner, and himself," Rozier says, "and the final product would be as good as productions from the major studios." Like other students in the class, Rozier will write a fifty-page biography of his subject and will contribute to the class’s group project, a film describing the effect that Paris had on Americans in the 1920s. As part of their research, the class went to Paris for eleven days in the middle of November. In Paris, each student led the class on a tour through a part of the city that related to the person that student was studying and explained the significance of the site. Rozier guided his classmates through an area where Chaplin stayed early in his career.
He has already presented a video series of Chaplin’s works to the public at the Muncie Center for the Arts, and, in addition to the class’s film, Rozier is planning his own film. Smiling out from under the rim of a Chaplinesque bowler, he explains, "I always wanted the opportunity to do it all myself, and that is what this course has given me. All those titles at the end of the credits – that’s going to be me." His original plans have shifted a bit. He is now minoring in criminal justice, and after graduation he hopes to go on to film school. Rozier’s personal academic odyssey may have had some unplanned twists and turns, but when he stepped into poetry, the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry, and film, he found his own road to follow. Continue: Academic Enhancement |
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Bryant Rozier
