Spring — 2008

Bonnie Lesse

Language and Arts

“It’s one of the amazing things at SMC. Because the classes are so inexpensive, you can just play around a little and experiment to find out where you want to go.”

“It’s really sort of a trial-and-error thing that I’m doing at SMC,” said Bonnie Leese, a ‘veteran’ of about one week on campus. “I’ll eventually choose a major, and then transfer on to a university, but right now, I’m just very excited to be able to try different classes. Maybe I’ll find an entirely new direction for myself. I tested out of high school a couple of years ago,” she continues, “and I went to the Musicians Institute in LA. But I felt like music was only using one part of my brain. And at SMC, I think I’m going to get a much more rounded sort of an education.”

Currently studying French, English, and Oil Painting, Bonnie was quite clear about her reasons for choosing SMC. “I’m a Santa Monica local, and I’ve always heard amazing things about the College, like its incredible transfer rate,” says Bonnie. “But I also heard great things about the professors, and all the people I’ve met since coming here have been really nice. Plus—with all the fields of grass—it’s also a very beautiful place to be studying.”

Bonnie reports, “Studying languages is important to me because I want to be able to travel in whatever career I choose. But my favorite teacher at the moment is the one I have for my English class, Mr. Murphy. He’s very nice and he’s very young, but he really knows literature,” says Bonnie. “He uses an almost Socratic method of teaching—asking tons of questions—that gets us all fired up and involved.” Bonnie adds, “SMC has such a huge variety of opportunity that it’s like a very creative ‘grab bag.’ I tell people to come here and just try out new experiences, because the whole place is like one big ‘experiment’ in learning.”

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