Student Work

The Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning

The Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning (CIEL) is a network of higher education institutions, professors, and students devoted to advancing innovations in student learning. Current Gallatin students Jacob Friedman, Amanda Knudsen, Lucy Shrenker, and Elizabeth Tetu—along with recent Gallatin graduate Sarah Helen Reynolds (BA '09)—are among the exceptional few featured in CIEL's 2009 online student journal, CIEL Voices and Visions: Changing Times, Changing Minds. Each student's piece reflects what the editor describes as "a faith in reason and imagination."

A Vital Link

Spring tutorial A Vital Link was a collaborative exploration of the stages between inspiration and the final result of a work of art.

"Graduation Tribute" (Beat--Young Jeezy's "Go Crazy")

Written and performed by Jake Podhurst
Performance: May 12, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center

Verse 1
Abstract metaphysical conscious unconscious
Somebody call the doctor
Identify the subject, the subject's a student
With Gallatin roots and a passion for the truth
I just wanna spring free, like a pea, in a pod
I am ready to be hatched, dispatch, can you hear me, clearly, fear me, never that, feel me
Privilege, why I'm here, ain't no better than the next
See my complex, see your complex, though your mind's complex, lucky to the nth degree
And I know we worked hard, now we tryna get a job, lotta ya'll done had a job
Credits in your course load, never free, make you pay for everything, anything
NYU is a business, school second
I had to get it in, back to us—the honorees we need discuss
Free food in the lounge, what we lived for
Knitting club, study sessions, paper topic slow progressing, so my head is hurtin',
stressin'
Episode next, season finale finally now I'm free to be, me
Hello world, I am here to stay
Make room give me space, got a pacemaker so I set it, trendsettin' we are NY's livin' legends
Blessed with the skills, yes—we are big deals, yes—you could not kill, what I bring, what I rock, what I got and I'm not alone—look who I got

Hook (2x)

When they play this kind of beat, just get out ya seat
Break the stereotype, if you white, you could dance, two step for your mans
Show me what you got, yea, yea—that's lookin' pretty pretty hot hot

Verse 2
Gallatone in my voice, metaphor in my speech, activist, so I practice what I preach
Entire student body that's definin' what I'm rhymin', try to tell me stay silent, I get the wylin', rilin' everybody up—what up
Throw your caps up, take your gowns down, after party at my crib, yea it's goin' down down
Young Joc, on my Montclair hood hop, swagger with a strut, effortless, breathless, I leave you
Gallatin, that's my family, they be the truth
Readin' bout my roots, professors spittin' truth, lovin' what I do
Stimulated in my mind, mind rich, money don't make sense, lens type-justice
What I see, this is you, this is me, a group of smart, considerate, infinite greatness, thoughtful to the core, we were born
Live on, what I preach, thanks for makin' me, me
Love in my soul, knowledge pourin' out my skull, feel the academic pull, stimulated intellectually, complexity in everything that I think
It's you I gotta thank, ya'll are above rank, RateMyProfessor.com, no contest, best best, what they be, no tests, yes

Hook (2x)

Verse 3
A class act in my class hat
09', yea it's reppin' time
Thankful to the people that done got me here, I am livin' a dream—took everything they offered me
Got wisdom like I'm old—got knowledge like I graduated college
I just graduated college, homage paid, to the authors I done read, to professors expertise, and the thoughtfulness they showed to me
Can't forget my family for the love and support, and my homies, they my brothers—to my girl, what it is bey
09' what it do, thank you