UNC Greensboro’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) is proud to celebrate its outstanding Spring 2024 graduates. Read just a few of just some of the college’s standout graduates from each of the four schools in CVPA: Music, Theatre, Dance, and Art.
Marissa Finklestein
Dance has been a part of Marissa Finklestein’s life for almost as long as she can remember. After receiving a bachelor of arts in dance and business, she worked as a choreographer, educator, and performer in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. She held various positions with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires, and with New York City’s GlobalArts to Go as a teaching artist for schools and community-based organizations. She then decided to jump back into school for a graduate degree in dance at UNCG.
UNCG has helped me realize I can do things that sometimes I thought I couldn’t. When I taught my first class in the School of Dance, I questioned whether I was qualified. But I’ve been given the resources and support to feel like I can do this.
Jamarius Wall decided he wanted to pursue a life in theatre when he was in elementary school in Burlington, North Carolina. At UNCG, Wall has played the part of a zombie in Night of the Living Dead and was part of a devised theatre piece this semester at Elsewhere Museum called [where-else], developed by students with Assistant Professor of Movement/Acting Robi Arce-Martínez. After graduation, Wall plans to teach and to pursue acting.
UNCG has been such a great fit for me. I really feel like the School of Theatre has fully welcomed and has integrated me into the program as an actor. And there are so many things I love about the University as a whole, including the incredible diversity of the student body.
Beth Campbell says if there was just one subject she could study for the rest of her life, it would be art history. She found a way to do that at UNC Greensboro’s School of Art. Campbell says North Carolina feels like home and so does UNCG’s School of Art. After graduation, Campbell says she’d like to continue working in a museum or in art education and possibly pursue a graduate degree and continue her research.
As an older student, I had a lot of apprehension when I started taking classes in person. But the students—my fellow classmates— have also been accepting and supportive. I can’t think of a single interaction that hasn’t been overwhelmingly positive.
Retired U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Dandrick Glenn says his retirement from military service wasn’t the end of a journey, it was an opportunity for more. The beginning of that opportunity is earning his doctorate in musical arts from UNC Greensboro. Glenn graduated in Spring 2024 with a doctorate in musical arts, focusing on trombone performance from UNC Greensboro. The Shelby, North Carolina native recently retired after 23 years of combined service in the Air Force and the Air National Guard – performing as a military musician throughout his career.
IF I HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO HELP SOMEBODY HAVE A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE THROUGH THIS BEAUTIFUL ART, THEN I’M ALL FOR IT.
Stories by Terri Relos, UNCG College of Visual and Performing Arts and Avery Craine Powell, University Communications Photography courtesy of Marissa Finklestein, Jamarius Wall, and Beth Campbell Additional photography by Sean Norona, University Communications
