Bfa in Photography - Lesley university college of art and design - Morgan & kelly, students

I'm Kelly O'Connor, I'm from Hingham, Mass, and I'm a photography major. I'm Morgan Lacasse, I'm from Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and I'm a photo and design major. I found AIB for a summer program, and it was in the middle of switching between colleges, and trying to figure out if I wanted business and law, or if I wanted to go with my creative side. For me, I knew that I wanted to be a design major and a photo major. So it was a big search to find a school that was the size I wanted, and was able to do that, have both, a double major of design and photo. And AIB was really accommodating with that, so it was the obvious choice. KELLY O'CONNOR: The faculty is amazing, and so supportive. Especially transferring in, I was lost. Everybody else had a semester up on me. And the faculty and the students and the staff here was incredible in helping me no longer be a little lost puppy. I enjoy living on campus. It gives you more of that "college experience," which... I didn't know how important it was until I really embraced it. MORGAN LACASSE: The location was a really big deal. Being in Cambridge felt a little more homey for me, and then coming into, like, big Boston for school. And it was a hard transition for me, being from a small, like, New Hampshire kind of town, moving into the city, but I found if you just kind of put yourself out there, everything worked out exactly the way you wanted it if you were willing to look for what you wanted. For a photo foundation, it's catered specifically to photo. You are, from day one, playing with a camera, and learning straight off of a camera. And yes, you have other fundamental classes, but from the beginning, you're using a camera, which I found different than a lot of other art schools. I would strongly encourage you to visit the school you're thinking of going to. I visited a lot of schools, and a lot of them I was really excited about, and then I got there, and it wasn't what I thought it would be. That was kind of, like, the defining moment for AIB. It was like, I came to an open house, and it was what I wanted. I found a lot of upperclassmen helped me. A lot of the seniors who... they were doing their own project, so they'd be in the darkroom, you know, and I'm there trying to agitate, and clearly freaking out, and they had no problem coming up to you and being like, "What's going on?" Like, "Are you okay?" I'd have people come up to me and be like, "I haven't seen you here. Are you new?" And they'd introduce themselves. And that was totally unexpected. You know, I'm in my own little world, and people come out of their comfort zone to make me feel comfortable. And it's definitely something I feed off of. I would definitely agree with that. I would encourage people to really, like, branch out and talk to people. And if you have a question about your work, ask. And, like, if you think your work says something, see what it says to someone else. And use the people around you, especially, as, like, outside bystanders to help your work. And you'll make a lot of friends that way, too.