This week we were blessed with the opportunity to tour the Charleston School of the Arts and all its secrets. As two Magnet students that didn’t attend SOA for middle school, everything was new to us as we aimlessly wandered the halls. Here are some interesting rooms, programs, and people that we happened across. A big thank you to all teachers, students, and admin as well as Officer Baber who answered questions, guided us, and were extremely friendly, Thanks SOA!

Approaching from the breeze way, the first area we entered was the music and art hallway which had string players practicing at the time. We met with junior Rogelio Martinez, or Roger, who kindly showed us around the music hall. He told us about the general layout of the school and how the side of the school closer to the parking lot was the academic side and beyond the breezeway was the arts side. 

A shocking new discovery for us was that SOA has its own full gym with basketball hoops and everything for the middle schoolers. At the time of touring, testing was going on inside it, so we weren’t able to explore it, but nevertheless this was a big discovery for us.

School Deputy Resource Officer Baber

Officer Baber was kind enough to get us into the theatre and explained the existence of the gym to us. We asked him about how well SOA students behave and we were glad to hear that this part of his job is quite easy as the students are very well-mannered. Officer Baber didn’t know what happened to google forms though.

Rose Maree Myers Theatre

In order to get in here, we first had to pay a visit to the SOA Principal, Mrs. Derrickson, who kindly radioed for Officer Baber who escorted us into the theatre. He told us that the theatre is the 2nd largest performing arts theatre in North Charleston, and is often rented out for use by other programs. Inside the theatre there was practice going on, so we weren’t able to explore too much, but it was really nice with impressive lighting during the rehearsal.

Rafa 

We stumbled into Rafa in the breezeway to ask if she knew our friend Cesa. She didn’t. Anyway, Rafa is in 7th grade and in the vocal program at SOA. She said that her favorite part of SOA is probably her major, but also her English class.

She vaguely knows Tristan who is also in 7th grade and on the Magnet JV soccer team.

The Water Fountains and Bathrooms 

When traversing, we decided it was our journalistic duty to test the water quality between the Magnet and SOA halves of campus. The SOA water fountain with bottle fillers were more ingrained into the wall, as the Magnet ones protruded a little bit. Upon first taste, the SOA water was certainly not as enjoyable. It seemed flat, yet with an odd aftertaste, probably a whole bunch of fluoride. We were very glad to have been drinking Magnet water for the past 4 years rather than SOA water.

Ms. Bagnal 

The first teacher who was willing to talk to was a very kind teacher named Mrs Bagnel. Upon first interaction, we asked her favorite part about SOA, to which she responded by saying that although it is her first year teaching at SOA, she loves the students. Mrs Bagnel then continued to talk about how the most different thing she has noticed is that all the students are very willing to do presentations, something she noticed differed from any other school she had previously worked at. We also got to learn more about the school, mentioning that on the library side there are 2 more buildings that include the middle school academic building and the high school academic building, while the other side was just one giant 1 story building for all the majors. We  tried our best to keep the conversation flowing, and we realized that she hasn’t ever heard the story about the Bonds Wilson Rat yet, but she did have a slight cricket infestation at one point. She also knows Vaughn, but does not know any of our other friends. She also said the most different thing she has noticed about the kids is that they tend to hum a decent amount in class, and then proceeded to point us in the direction of the other Computer science teacher who has more experience at the School of the Arts. Unfortunately, she also didn’t know what happened to google forms. Something small we noticed was that each teacher’s classroom was labeled with a cool street sign featuring their name instead of a boring name plaque.

Open lounge – one thing we noticed is the open lounges. In academic magnet culture, there is a strict no-underclassmen rule in a lounge that is known around the school as “The Senior Lounge.” Upon touring the middle school, we noticed that they have an open lounge for anybody who wants to sit a while and do homework, which we learned from talking to a nearby substitute teacher. We then toured the High school section of the SOA campus, and found the same style of lounge; however, it was in a different color to probably distinguish the middle school and the high school. We once again knocked on a nearby teacher’s door, and we asked if the said lounge was the senior lounge, to which she said no, that is just the lounge. They do not seem to have many concerns about seniority in School of the Arts, probably because of how mixed most of the classes tend to be.

Mrs. Hepburn

Mrs. Hepburn was the next teacher we met up with. She was extremely kindhearted and had a very well decorated room, as shown in the photos. While the room was all dark, all the computers had LED strips lining them with the lights synchronized so they all light up together. She was very cool about talking to us, and told us that her classes are digital arts and animation, and she is certified in adobe photoshop for the class. One thing she enjoys teaching is animating the sound of music. She has her students animate the sound of a song or of something, to display abstractly how it makes her student feel about the song

While walking around and exploring SOA, we saw a variety of different ways of introduction. The very first one we saw was a bow (bending of the body in respect)  given by a female SOA middle schooler to a teacher, and the teacher seemed very confused when it happened, but also as if she is used to seeing the bows, but potentially the first time it happened to her. The weirder greeting we saw was the students seemed to not say hi or fist bump or anything cool when greeting each other; they all seemed to have an inside joke with one another. We think there may be something between the kids and the teachers, and that the bow was a sneak diss at the teacher, explaining why the teacher may have been surprised that she was bowed at, but not confused on why people are bowing in general.

Lucas Fetten and Luna Bejar

Lucas is a senior and a saxophone major who has for the most part loved the SOA experience. He says his senior year has been really free and he can mostly float around and hang out as long as his work gets done. He waved over another senior, Luna Bejar, whose  major is fashion design. Her favorite part about the school is how everyone is themselves. . She prefers waffles over pancakes.

Lucas, when asked about Vaughn, said that, “Vaughn is the greatest, so himself, charming, athletic, smart, makes me feel loved, and he matches my freak”. Certainly high praise for Vaughn.

Another observation we had was that for the theater students, practices and line readings happen in the breezeway where students passionately work on their projects. It was pretty loud and enthusiastic, but the parts were convincing.

Cesa Ramirez,

A good friend of ours from soccer, apparently does a lot of favors at SOA. Vaughn told us that he always sees the cutie carrying packages and letters to and from the main office. This is really interesting as I’ve never seen Magnet students do this sort of thing, but good for him I guess. 

Vaughn Hickerson

– another good friend from soccer, and the 2nd place for the valedictorian for the school, only behind his twin sister, Victoria. We met up with Vaughn when he was walking in the hallway with close friend Will Merchant, who plays soccer for rival West Ashley. Vaughn told us about how much fun he has had both at SOA and playing soccer for Magnet for the past 3 years. He also mentioned that he has taken multiple classes at Magnet since SOA doesn’t offer some classes he needs to take, but prefers the classrooms in SOA oveer those of  Magnet classrooms, but he enjoys the Magnet waterfountains alot more than the “fluoride filled [bad] SOA water fountains”

Thanks to all the people who met up with us when we were visiting SOA, and all the people who agreed to let us interview them. Special shoutout to all the SOA members of the soccer team and to all SOA players who play for magnet’s sports teams. Vaughn also wanted to shoutout the Magnet senior night on April 8th, since he will be the first ever SOA senior to be on the field for a Magnet Soccer Senior Night. Again thanks to all SOA people and for the teachers who let us walk around the campus and interview people, as well as find out more about the school.