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Inspiring U | May 20, 2025

What's New With U? May 2025

Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts Art Students in the Studio

Dear Friends,

Throughout Mental Health Awareness Month, we have reflected on the profound impact of arts education on our students' well-being. While Usdan is not art therapy, art making — especially when immersed in nature — is undeniably therapeutic. In 2025, the space we provide for our students — nurtured by our community of teachers, friends, neighbors, and alumni — feels more important than ever to protect and celebrate.

As you make your summer plans, save the date to join in at least one of this year's five (!) community gatherings. We look forward to hosting you this season.

Read on to learn about one student’s lifelong dedication to Musical Theater, the latest on an alum who spent the last five years photographing the longest butterfly migration in the world, and more.

Enjoy!

 


Spring Scholarship Drive

Support young artists

Usdans Spring Scholarship Drive
 

This Mental Health Awareness Month, Usdan launched our annual Spring Scholarship Drive to provide more students with access to a summer of creativity, connection, and healing through the arts. Every dollar donated goes directly to student scholarships.

Hear from Usdan families, alum, and friends — watch powerful testimonial videos that show the real impact of your support.

 


Student Spotlight: Sara Nearenberg

Multiple recognitions awarded to Usdan student

Usdan student Sara Nearenberg accepts Scholar-Artist Award during the Long Island Arts Alliance ceremony April 28.

Usdan student Sara Nearenberg accepts Scholar-Artist Award during the Long Island Arts Alliance ceremony April 28.

 

On April 28, the Long Island Arts Alliance recognized Usdan student Sara Nearenberg as one of their four Theater Scholar-Artists of 2025. The Scholar-Artist program honors exceptional high school seniors from Nassau and Suffolk County in Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Dance, and Media Arts.  

According to the Long Island Arts Alliance, April’s awards celebration was more than just a ceremony, it was “a testament to the power of arts education and the talent thriving in our schools and communities” (LIAA). 

For Sara, the award was an acknowledgment of their deep love and dedication to the art of musical theater — a passion Sara will bring to Oberlin Conservatory of Music this fall where they will major in musical theater. It all began, however, at Usdan Summer Theater Camp.

“I did ‘Junie B. Jones’ when I was eight years old, and that was the start of my theater journey,” Sara shared. “I was immediately hooked on everything [theater], and now it’s just something I can’t get away from. I could never imagine my world not being absolutely surrounded by theater."

Sara attended Usdan from 2016 to 2023, with the exception of the virtual 2020 summer. They participated in Troupe, Usdan’s most prestigious theater program, for the last three years. Over the course of their seven years at Usdan, Sara’s love of theater grew as they played many roles. One of their favorites, however, was the Second-Class Passenger in “Titanic” during the 2021 “COVID year” season. 

“I loved [this role] so much because she was sort of a reflection of me. She was on this human journey where she spent all her life going for what she wanted,” Sara shared. “With “Titanic,” there's this sense of unity around, in spite of the class disparity, learning to love life before suddenly parts of it disappear.” 

For Sara, playing different roles on stage has been crucial to their own self-understanding. “That’s what theater is all about,” they echoed.

Sara Nearenberg as Junie B. Jones during their first of seven summers at Usdan.

 

Another key lesson Sara learned from Usdan was what it means to be part of an ensemble. For Sara, this meant learning to work together, like a flock of birds, articulating a shape greater than oneself. 

Sara remembered fondly a time when “dynamic duo” Troupe’s Director Mike Schwendemann and Music Director Jeffrey Hoffman told the ensemble to build a human barricade out of their bodies, one that Mike could not walk through. Sara recalled that all the members of Troupe were strong leaders, theater kids with a tendency to contend with one another over who gets to lead. By lunchtime, when the group failed to build an impenetrable human barricade, they decided to use their lunch break to try again, and this time take a more cooperative approach.  

“With an ensemble, you're interacting with everybody, and you have to navigate through the differences of the other actors, how they act and how they interact with people,” Sara said.  

“It’s like a chemistry game and a game of compromise, where you have to practice being aware of other people and being considerate of other people and lift each other up.” 

After changing to a more cooperative approach, the group solved the challenge and presented their solution to their teachers after lunch. To Sara, this illustrated the lesson of working with others to support a greater vision, just one of the lessons they learned at Usdan. 

As many students, alumni, and staff report, the “ensemble” community of Usdan expands beyond the time spent on campus.  

"Wherever I'm going, whenever I'm doing something at a place that is unfamiliar to me, I'm almost guaranteed to see someone there that I know [from Usdan],” Sara said. "Having that sense of familiarity in situations that are really foreign — or give you major impostor syndrome — really helps.” 

 

Inspired by Sara Nearenberg’s story? Want to learn about the beauty of ensemble work? Join Usdan’s Musical Theater Department

 


Congratulations, 2025 Award Recipients!

Usdan student Riley Wood also won a Scholar-Artist Award for Media Arts and student Ariana Washington won a Theater Merit Award. 

 

Sara Nearenberg also received a nomination for the 2025 Roger Rees Outstanding Performance Award, alongside fellow Usdan students Allison AngellMiles Cohen, and William Herbert. All these awesome Usdan students performed at the regional Roger Rees Awards Ceremony on May 19 at Symphony Space.

 


Reel Love Challenge Recap

Usdan Student draws heart with chalk

 

In less than 90 seconds, students of all ages explored what love and art mean to them. We were thoroughly impressed by the artistry, humor, and wisdom shared with us. In the end, two students took home the prize: Isaac Chan (grade 7) and Marlo Barrow (grade K). Thirteen students were awarded honorable mentions. 

Congratulations artists! Thank you for showing us that REEL love!

 


Alumni Spotlight: Lucas Foglia

"Constant Bloom" celebrates the resilience of butterflies

Fine arts photographer & Usdan alum Lucas Foglia’s “Constant Bloom”

Visit fine arts photographer & Usdan alum Lucas Foglia’s “Constant Bloom” show at Fredericks & Freiser Gallery in Chelsea, NY, NY. On display through May 31.

 

When Lucas Foglia first came to Usdan as a Jazz Major in 1998, he discovered two things: his love of nature and photography's ability to speak about nature.  

“My parents had an old camera, and I picked it up that summer,” Lucas shared. “I was inspired by what I was learning, and I just started photographing. Now, the combination of the art of photography with my study of nature has become what I do for a living.”  

As a professional fine arts photographer for the last 20 years, Lucas focuses on stories that center human-nature relations. In 2024, Lucas was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, which led to the creation and publication of his fifth book “Constant Bloom,” as well as a multi-city photography exhibition of the same name.  

The project follows the migration route of the Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) butterflies as they travel from Central Africa to Northern Europe in search of flowers in bloom.  

“One group of Painted Lady butterflies was just discovered to have the longest butterfly migration in the world,” Lucas reflected from the Fotomuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands where one of his exhibitions is currently open.  

Estimated to be about 8,700 miles round trip, the Painted Lady butterfly migration is undertaken by 10 generations of butterflies every year, which is to say, one butterfly may fly two to four weeks, passing the journey on to their kin to continue. Scientists have found this route to be millions of years old.  

For Lucas, butterfly migration patterns offer a beautiful metaphor of the connection between people across borders and generations.  

“Butterflies are delicate but also resilient,” he said, pointing to a photograph of a five-week-old butterfly wing next to an old butterfly that had holes in its wings. “They fly until their wings tear or fade.” 

 

Fine arts photographer & Usdan alum Lucas Foglia’s “Constant Bloom”

Two framed photographs from Lucas Foglia's “Constant Bloom” exhibition.

 

Walking around the gallery now, he points to a photograph of teenagers hanging out near the Berlin Wall next to a photograph of a similar formation of the Painted Lady butterflies gathered close to one another in nature. Next, he points to a photograph shows a father holding a daughter wearing a butterfly dress in Norway. Another series of photographs show wide shots of scientists in Spain and Kenya holding butterfly nets atop boulders.  

Lucas’ professional portfolio looks at human and nature relations and complications through photographs. Often, he focuses first on humans as a way of understanding different environments. For example, Lucas’ project “Frontcountry” (2014) photographs the rural American West. Many photographs in this collection show human subjects relating to combinations of natural and urban environments. “Constant Bloom” continues this theme, this time centering butterflies while offering an elegant gesture to the migration patterns of humans across man-made borders.  

Lucas’ work is additionally inspired by growing up on a Long Island farm,  a 15-minute drive from campus. At Usdan, his love for nature deepened. Lucas remembers his father, Larry Foglia, who helped found the Nature Department at Usdan, planting berries so students could enjoy eating fresh fruit between classes.  

“I think that changed a lot of my friends’ understanding of food, because if you go into a supermarket and you see a plastic container full of berries, it doesn’t really show you where they come from or the fact that all of our food is part of nature, too,” Lucas shared.  

Days after the decision to introduce an “insect of the summer,” starting with the butterfly this year, we received news of Lucas’ project. More information on the summer insect to come, but for now, here is some wisdom from a Usdanite well-acquainted with the butterfly:

“With their fragile wings, butterflies can fly across the world. I think for a lot of kids who might feel small in relationship to so many things in their life, butterflies talk about strength and interdependence.”  

Lucas lives in the San Francisco Bay Area when not traveling for work. He has been featured at the Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam and the San Franscisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. Learn more about Lucas’ work at lucasfoglia.com.  

 

Interested in studying Photography or Nature at Usdan? Enroll today.

 


In Memory of Eileen Powers Benedict

Eileen Powers Benedict Powers conducts a vocal ensemble in an old Usdan

Eileen Powers Benedict, featured in an old Usdan ad, conducts a vocal ensemble on stage at the McKinley Amphitheater.

 

Former colleague Christa Braunreuther writes of Eileen:

Eileen and I met at Usdan and worked together for years. She was my colleague but also my teacher and mentor in so many ways because she was such a force in the music education world. Everyone knows her in our niche. Many have been blessed to learn from her in some way because she had this amazing ability to take anyone and everyone under her wing. She helped so many. And she was a freaking spitfire. I loved that about her. Sass for days. In a good way! 
 
Most of what I do in my classroom is from her library of knowledge and expertise. So there is not a day I don’t already think about her as I mimic her methods and pedagogies. Knowing I can’t just call or text and ask for advice anymore is heartbreaking, but I know she is always with me in my teaching; in my being. 
 
We’ve lost a great one, but we are so lucky to have known her at all. 
 
Love ya, Eileen; my dear friend, colleague, and mentor. Until we meet again.

 


Job Opportunities for High School Students 

Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts senior division students

 

Usdan’s Leadership Program for high school students is designed to cultivate thoughtful, independent young adults who will become the next generation of leaders in the arts. 

Leadership students take classes like other students, while gaining valuable work experience serving as mentors to younger students and assisting in camp operations. Stipends are offered for some roles.

 


Usdan Out & About Town

Usdan students and alum Sara Nearenburg, William Herbert, and Kyra Leeds

(L – R) Student & nominees Sara Nearenburg & William Herbert with Senior Development Coordinator & alum Kyra Leeds at the 2025 Roger Rees Awards. William went on to become one of this year's Outstanding Award Finalists. Another huge congratulations to all the nominees including Sara, William, Allison AngellMiles Cohen.

 

Executive Director Lauren Brandt Schloss snaps a picture of IMGE Dance while enjoying the performance at Battery Park City on May 17. Thanks to popular demand, this act will return to Usdan as part of this year's summer Festival!

 


 

 

Calendar


 

 

Friday, May 30

Music Merit Scholarship Applications Due

Applications close at 11:59 p.m. ET

 

Sunday, June 1

June Campus Tour

11:00 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 1:30 p.m. | Usdan Campus

 

Saturday, June 7

June Campus Tour — Final Tour!

11:00 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 1:30 p.m. | Usdan Campus

 

Wednesday, June 18

2025 Family Orientation

5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Usdan Campus