A fruitful welcome to CCAD

jeremy portrait mid zoom

Consider the pineapple. (Stick with us. It’s a metaphor.)

Jeremy Rosario (Advertising & Graphic Design, 2000) held up an oil painting he’d created of his son, Andrés, cradling a pineapple. In Puerto Rico there’s a saying, “La piña está agria,” he said, addressing Columbus College of Art & Design’s newest class of students via Google Meet. 

The literal translation is “the pineapple is sour,” he said, and it means that times are tough.

And, he said, times are certainly tough now, with natural disasters, a global pandemic, political strife, and more. But there’s a second half to that saying in Rosario’s native Puerto Rico.

“Culturally, we take that pineapple and flip it upside down and allow the sugars to ripen it evenly,” he said. “Meaning, ‘Hey guys, sometimes things can be tough, but they can be better, if you approach it at a different angle.’

maddison portrait

Rosario, Co-President of the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts and a Vice President at GSW Worldwide, encouraged students to step outside and gain inspiration from the sky, flora, and in people-watching. To take off the mask, (again, metaphorically) and connect with one another. To construct a creative vision and move forward.

dr corn screenshot from zoom

“Let’s build a new tomorrow filled with big ideas, inspiring art, and a better world. You’ve got this,” said Rosario, who  joined CCAD’s President, Dr. Melanie Corn, and Student Government Association President Maddison Wilson (Advertising & Graphic Design, 2021) in the welcome event for CCAD’s new first-year and transfer students on Monday, Aug. 24, 2020.

“It’s a weird time to be a student,” acknowledged Wilson. “It’s going to be uncharted territory … but I encourage everyone to get engaged with one another” through chats on Discord, by engaging with one another after class, and by attending online SGA meetings (Mondays, 11 a.m. to noon). 

“Create change. Make waves. Do whatever you need to do,” she said.

(Short on time? Rosario’s remarks begin at 9:43 and Wilson’s at 15:40.)