The goal of this student-centered ESL Lab is to provide the opportunity to improve students’ English skills and also to advance critical thinking in tandem with the Whole Human Artist course. At times, the Lab will align completely with WHA to support readings, topics, vocabulary and the assignments. Other times, this ESL Lab will function completely independently, to facilitate building your English skills, especially regarding speaking/presenting and research/writing.

In this course, we will work to explore, awaken, and engage our individuality in its ever-developing relationship with a) the traditions of our chosen path, and b) our current context. In this work, we expect, welcome, and celebrate the unique identity of each student, as well as the generative power of collaboration. As designers of this dynamic course, we are constantly experiencing - and witnessing in our peers - how our artistic expression benefits from involving all parts of ourselves in concert. By integrating our physical bodies and invigorated minds with the complexities of our breath and emotions, we can make art with increased clarity, impact, and career longevity. How this looks is different for each of us, and includes our cultural backgrounds, personal experiences, philosophies, bodies, and contexts. Therefore, as we engage and actively participate in this course, the specifics of each student’s work process are invited to be broadly and spaciously individual. The intention in our semester together is to provide some structure, theoretical and practical, for our ongoing evolution as artists; “artists” also means students, individuals, and participating members in society. How can we remain open to personally (re)defining and self-initiating “success” in a rapidly changing world? Our inquiries will empower us as artists during our stay at The New School and beyond.