My name is Zachary Wolf and I am a graduating senior majoring in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing and minoring in the Music Industry. I am truly honored to be one of the five recipients for the first Jimmy Gauntt Memorial Award at USC.
My interest in the arts is neither a recent nor faint curiosity, but rather a deep, indelible necessity to pursue creative endeavors – to study them, to participate in them, but most importantly, I am constantly compelled to enjoy, as frequently as possible, the way the arts seem to invite explorations of our own vivacity. This is to say, I cannot imagine my life without engaging in some form of creative of expression. From a very early age, my parents have embedded in me an appreciation for music. They encouraged me to take piano and guitar lessons, to join a children’s choir, and to participate in community theatre. Indeed, my family was a musical one, but during my maturation I began to form my own set of interests. As a senior in high school, inspired by my then-mentor, Bill Waters, I developed an inexorable attraction to the art of story and written expression. I soon found that I had a talent for poetry, and I decided to capitalize on that talent for my major as an undergraduate. I have since been fascinated with all forms of narrative expression, from film, to stage, to novel, to poem. However, my passion for music never left me. With a desire to engage in significant discourse regarding contemporary popular and alternative music, I became a disc jockey as USC’s student-run radio station, KSCR. There, I soon became the Co-Director of Publication, which charged me with running the station’s music blog and releasing two annual music, arts and culture based magazines entitled Bandwidth. I have since spent my senior year as the General Manager of KSCR, a position that has given me the opportunity to, among many other things, interface directly with the artists whose music had inspired me to become a disc jockey in the first place.
However, my two years of research with Professor David Román stand as my most important academic encounter with the arts. During my sophomore year, Prof. Román and I received a grant from the Summer Undergraduate Research Fund in order to study the Cultural Politics of the 2008 Broadway Season. What began as a single trip to New York City soon blossomed into all-encompassing intellectual enterprise. I have since developed an expertise on Broadway plays and musicals, and garnered a wealth of research experience. My collaboration with Prof. Román has resulted in two additional grants under the USC Provost Fellowship during the fall of 2008 and summer of 2009, as well as a featured, co-authored review of South Pacific for the May 2009 edition ofTheatre Journal.
As I prepare to graduate, the only thing I actually know for certain is that I want the arts to play a major role in my yet-undecided career. My experience at USC, and the work I have done both inside and outside the classroom have certainly prepared me for a plethora of opportunities in that regard. Moreover, being chosen to participate in Jimmy Gauntt’s legacy with this award is such an un-expected privilege, and I am sincerely grateful for such distinguished recognition
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