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Spread Your Wings

Seeing your family after spending a term abroad can be overshadowed by anxiety, also known as aerophobia: a fear of flying by plane. Holiday trips planned in advance suddenly seem less attractive than staying at home away from the airport. That was exactly my case for six years in Switzerland. The fear of flying appeared out of nowhere and has made my life more challenging, so I decided to understand what causes aerophobia and how to eliminate the fear.

Most likely, having aerophobia means being scared of crashing, but can be an outcome of claustrophobia: the fear of being trapped in the closed space for some time with no possibility of getting out. People are often scared of having a panic attack in the air. Some cannot even explain what it is they fear exactly, and the anxiety just takes over.

A majority of people may not have an instant fear of flying; however, it can develop overtime. The fact of suddenly being afraid with a history of traveling by plane can confuse flyers.

A bad flight might be a starting point for aerophobia. For example: experiencing strong turbulence or change in plans due to some technical or organizational issues, making people feel as if they had just escaped a dangerous situation.

Another reason could be hearing about unfortunate flights in the news. Plane crushes often get huge media coverage, which makes flying seem dangerous. A lot of people got aerophobia after the events of 09/11. However, plane crashes are rare, that’s why they get so much attention.

These suggestions have worked for me personally and helped me to get over my aerophobia. Try them and, hopefully, you will be able to order a tomato juice in a calm voice during a strong turbulence, just as I did during my recent trip home.

A Narrative In Sound

Humans are amazing at creating meaning out of isolated events. It is exactly this that I wanted to study in this experimental. Where each note represents a generic shot, how does a short narrative change based on the order of the shots?

In other words, how does the melody affect the story? Can we create meaning from shots that are not connected to each other solely based on what we hear coupled with what we see? Six shots, six notes.

A Journey Back Home

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic all Webster study abroad students were sent home early. This shows my last day in Geneva and my trip home after being away for a year and a half.

Hibiscus Tea

Youssef discusses pretty tea while stuck in quarantine.

3D Art by Boris Levin

Webster’s Got Talented Students

Singers, dancers, musicians, and magicians. Webster’s Got Talent has it all. Every year the multi-talented students of Webster Geneva sign up to compete in our most exciting event. This year it consisted of nine students and seven performances. Contestants were Amir Mominbayev, Youssef Negm, Lucas Barbey, Jerah Barredo, Polina Flenova, Dravid Lord, Hulda Calix, Peter Hofmann and Josue Lopez. Participants are critiqued by a panel of three judges but ultimately the winner is decided by voting in the audience.

To open the show Dravid Lord sings “Love in the Dark” by Adele with Polina Flenova accompanying him on keyboards.

In a soulful and tear-jerking performance Jerah Barredo sings “Say Something” by A Great Big World. She got the crowd emotional and earned non-stop applause.

Youssef Negm performs a musical comedy piece, playing guitar and singing along to “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears. He also included audience interaction!

Lucas Barbey sings “Better” by Khalid, adding in some dance moves!

Polina Flenova and Hulda Calix dance with guest judge Youssef Awad, a Webster Geneva alumni. Youssef, a dancer himself, joined Polina and Hulda on stage after watching them perform and asked them to teach him some moves.

Amir Mominbayev shows off powerful vocals singing “Given Up” by Linkin Park. Amir came in second place and drove the crowd crazy.

Winners Youssef Negm, Peter Hofmann, and Josue Lopez. They performed an original piece with drums, guitar, and keyboard that they created after beginning to play together in Webster’s Music Club.