Push Your Limits
Student of the Week: Marisol Arnold
“I want to know how us as creatives can push the limits on what it is we can do as technology advances. We need to push the limit on how we can express ourselves, and while it may seem like a cliche by now I have to tell students to never give up. You have to keep dreaming and it always helps to have a goal.”
Seeking to combine her interest in the arts with a love for technology, Marisol Arnold said receiving her education at South Texas College gave her a chance to experience art in all of its forms.
Marisol says a need to understand how technology and art go together has driven a passion to create on a computer while fulfilling a need for raw expression.
Experiencing difficulties in high school, Marisol said she dropped out at 17 years old, shortly before graduation. Five years would pass until a moment of inspiration from a family member enabled her to begin thinking of her own personal goals in life.
Inspired by her mother, who at 58 years old herself completed a bachelor degree in Technology Management at STC, Marisol said she found the strength to begin changing her life through education.
Entering STC in 2019, she began by completing the requirements for her GED and then opted to study for a degree as a medical coding specialist. Marisol however said she was looking for a degree that would enable her to fulfill her need for expression and creativity.
She turned her attention to Visual Arts and finally Drama.
Now three years since first starting at STC, Marisol is graduating this fall with an Associate of Arts in Drama, and has already been accepted to Lamar University, her dream school, where she will pursue a dual degree in theatre and computer science.
“I decided to change my degree to Drama and I loved it. To me it’s about expression and using your body, voice, and imagination to create a three-dimensional person,” Marisol said. “It’s a pure expression of art, creating something so vivid that for a moment people believe you’re somebody else as you project emotions through scripts and lines.”
With an Associate of Arts degree in Drama from STC, students will have attained the pre-professional foundation skills necessary to compete for beginning positions as technicians and/or performers.
Along with those career options, students with AA-Drama degrees may also choose to pursue advanced degrees in related fields such as television, film, radio, industrial presentations, arts management, and public relations.
Marisol said her choice of degrees would enable her to pursue a career as a freelance web and software designer while her pursuing her passion for the arts.
“I want to know how us as creatives can push the limits on what it is we can do as technology advances,” she said. “We need to push the limit on how we can express ourselves, and while it may seem like a cliché by now I have to tell students to never give up. You have to keep dreaming and it always helps to have a goal.”