semester #8: a better version of my botda speech i remember getting out of my rowan zoom audition and thinking i was not going to get in and the elation i felt when i got the email telling me i was accepted into the mt concentration. i am so glad i made the decision to go here. i came into rowan without any vocal training, formal theatre education, or theatre experience outside of my middle and high school and i leave here as an artist with 2 mainstages, 2 lab productions, 4,000,000 senior projects including one i directed, an opera, and an absurd amount of acting studio scenes under my belt. i bring these up not to gloat but to say how immensely grateful i am to have had the opportunity to perform at all. thank you to anyone who’s given me the chance to work on your productions and thank you to anyone ive shared the stage with. an extra special thank you to anyone who trusted me enough to be part of my senior project. i feel like ive genuinely learned something from every person i worked with and i wouldn’t trade my experience here for the world. to my friends, thank you for being accepting of me and allowing me to be a weirdo. you guys make my life so so much better and i’m gonna miss matching your freak all the time. to those who are still going to be at rowan come next year, take every opportunity you can. don’t worry about what it feels like you’re expected to do or what people want you to do, do what fuels you. theatre and music is my life source and i cannot wait to continue doing it for the rest of my life. upwards and onwards, jake kantrowitz