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Wake grad found a way to mix the arts, academics BY LAYLA FARMER THE CHRONICLE After four years of growth, exploration and discovery, 21 year-old Ae'Jay Mitchell suit ed up in his eco-friendly cap and gown (made from plastic bottles) and joined his more than 1,600 fellow graduates on Monday for Wake Forest University's 201 1 Commencement Ceremony. It was a surreal moment for Mitchell, a native of Shreveport, La. and the youngest of three children. "I still feel like that 1 1 year-old boy who was saying he was going to do well in school so he could get into a good college," Mitchell con fessed just days before Commencement. "It's scary... it's exciting though." Mitchell, who majored in psychology and minored in dance, plans to work for a year before enrolling in graduate school, where he hopes to study choreography and per formance studies. He dreams of becoming a professor some day. "I've always been very strong academically and very interested in academics," he WFl Photos Ae'Jay Mitchell related. "I always knew I wanted to be in academics, but I didn't know what part." Performing arts are in Mitchell's blood. His mother, uncles and aunt belong to the gospel group Adoration, his grandmother is a classically trained soprano opera singer and his brother and sister are both musicians. Though he performed as a vocalist as a child, Mitchell says his artistic bent led him in the direction of theater and dance from an early age. A graduate of a math and science magnet school, NJitchell says his intellect demands as much of his time arid attention as does his talent. The summer before he would enter Wake Forest, Mitchell landed a job as a dancer in "The Great Debaters" starring Denzel Washington. Washington vis ited the studio where Mitchell and his counterparts were practicing one day, and invited them out to dinner. "He is such a giving man, an incredible human being," Mitchell said of the Hollywood heavyweight. "He's very intelligent; he's down to earth. We sat and talked and laughed." Not willing to let the expe rience define him, Mitchell was tight lipped about his extraordinary summer gig when he arrived on campus that fall. When the movie hit theaters, Mitchell says the calls began to pour in from friends and acquaintances who were shocked to find his image on the screen. Despite his success in artistic disciplines, Mitchell, a Gordon Scholar who attended WFU on a full academic scholarship, says he had planned to all but give his artistic pursuits up and become a neurosurgeon when he arrived at Wake. "I was going to leave all the hobbies-all the fun stuff-behind," he declared. Mitchell says he chose WFU because he knew there would be many opportunities for him to get involved in the arts on campus if he changed his mind about leaving his passion behind. "Wake is the kind of school that you can kind of delve into all the things you enjoy and create a unique path for your self," said Mitchell, who later adopted dance as his minor. Assistant Professor of Dance Christina Soriano taught Mitchell four times over the course of his college career. Soriano, a native of Worcester, Mass., said Mitchell set himself apart from the crowd. "He's really an exemplary artist but he's also a really strong student," she remarked. "He's a student of the form as well as a practitioner of it." On campus, Mitchell, who directed the Wake Forest Soriano Gospel Choir in his junior year, spoke out about a variety of issues, writing letters and staging original performances around patriotism, religious and socio-economic diversity and on-campus accessibility for people who are physically disabled. For his efforts, Mitchell was hon ored in February with a Shattering the Boundaries award from the Black Student Alliance. "One of my biggest things is to make sure that Wake is talking about things that aren't comfortable, that aren't easy... We can't become com fortable if we want to grow as an institution," he said. "It's been really nice to be a part of that struggle and a part of that change. I think it's going to be great for the students coming after." Over time, the social mes sages of Mitchell's work have also become more pro nounced, noted Soriano, 34. "He's not someone who's afraid of taking risks," she stat ed. "As I've seen him grow as an artist, he's gettting more and more confident to say 'I have something to say and I 'm putting it out there,' and that's a difficult thing to do." Mitchell has also engaged in a variety of internships and volunteer projects during his time at WRJ, including spend ing several spring breaks trav eling up and down the East Coast with members of the Gospel Choir and school band visiting nursing homes, build ing playgrounds, tutoring youth and communing with troubled teens. "Basically we would go out and try to leave a change in whatever community we went in," he explained. Commencement season is often somewhat bittersweet for the professors, as they are often sending off some of their best and brightest students, but Soriano says she plans to keep in touch with Mitchell. She feels confident the world will be seeing more of him as a performer in years to come. "In some ways it's sad," she commented, "but in other ways, it's thrilling because many of these students will become peers, and I certainly put Ae'Jay in that category." If your jaw hurts, your heart may be trying to tell you something. Many women don't know that jaw pain can be a symptom of heart and coronary artery disease. CAD can be caused by a fatty deposit in the heart's arteries blocking blood flow. Other symptoms of heart disease can include burning, squeezing or tightness in the chest; arm pain; shortness of breath; irregular heartbeat; dizziness; nausea and sweating. When diagnosed early, certain forms of CAD can often be treated with a minimally invasive procedure through an artery in your wrist. Wake Forest Baptist Health has more experience performing this advanced outpatient heart procedure than any other hospital in the region. For your free heart information kit or to make an appointment with a cardiologist at any of our clinics in Winston-Salem, Lexington and North Wilkesboro, call 336-71 6-WAKE or 888-7 16-WAKE today or visit our web site at WakeHealth.edu/heart. HEART & VASCULAR I Call 336-716-WAKE for an appointment. W# Wak? FOfeSt Baptist Health
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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