River Morel ’24 (Psychology, Visual Arts minor) was initially drawn to Purchase College from a high school friend that was a current student. From this previous connection, River was properly acquainted with all the opportunities made available to students at Purchase. After visiting the college and speaking with their friend about the community, River was drawn in to the prospect of attending.
“I chose Purchase because of this thriving community feel. At Purchase, you can always find someone outside, whether that’s a band practicing on the freshman quad, people chatting at tables in the backyard of the apartment complexes, or film students in the middle of class on the main plaza.”
This unique feeling, coupled with the academic and personal freedom to explore multiple disciplines, affirmed River’s decision to choose Purchase.
“I also chose Purchase because I was interested in studying photography, which was not offered at my previous college. The prospect of combining my disciplines of psychology and photography at Purchase was exciting; I’ve always been both artistic and scientific. At Purchase, the two are not mutually exclusive!”
A Community of Collaboration:
To date, one of River’s most notable experiences at Purchase was assisting a friend who is a Sculpture major dig up a tree so it could be used for a large-scale project. The piece, Germination by Anna Brand ’23, is included below.
“Fun memories with friends, in the sake of creating, exploring, and implementing values and ideas, has been definitive of my Purchase career.”
Germination by Anna Brand ’23
Getting Involved:
River is currently working on a number of different projects. They have assisted Purchase’s Career Development Center as a Research Analyst, where they help to gather data for recent graduates’ and examine the experiences of current students and alumni. This data helps to better understand the needs of Purchase students regarding career development opportunities.
River is gearing up to work on their Senior Project for Psychology while also collecting works of poetry to create a personal portfolio. Aside from Psychology and Photography, poetry is another strong passion of River’s, and they hope to apply for Creative Writing graduate programs after graduation.
