Arts courses helped Schultz find passion and career

For Logan Schultz, the combination of theatre and arts experience meant a job before he’d even crossed the stage to accept his diploma.

At the end of Block 4 of his senior year at Cornell College, Schultz, a theatre major from Dubuque, Iowa, was finishing up a busy year of acting in productions. He decided he needed to take a break so he could finish his senior year and look for work. As he was making that decision, a friend sent him the listing for a job as the operations manager of Orchestra Iowa, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It seemed a nearly perfect fit, given Schutlz’s love of the performing arts and his desire to work for a non-profit.

Things moved quickly after he applied. Scott Olinger, professor of theatre who works with the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, which is part of the same organization,  was able to offer Schultz advice about the application process and serve as a reference. He got the job.

“They said they were really impressed with the skills I developed at Cornell,” he said.

Orchestra Iowa was willing to be flexible with his schedule, but, as it happened, he’d completed his coursework, so at the end of Block 5, he started his new position.

“I think Cornell not only helped me learn the skills that got me the job at Orchestra Iowa,” Schultz said, “but it also helped me realize that I wanted to work in the arts.”

One of the most influential classes was a block-long trip to Chicago with theatre professor Jim VanValen. The class was the first to spend an entire block in the college’s McLennan Center in Chicago, which offers housing and classrooms that allow students to spend longer periods of time in the city and take advantage of the resources Chicago offers.

In Schultz’s case, the class saw 20 plays during the block and also talked with actors, stage professionals, musicians, and arts executives.

“It gave me a really great sense of what it’s like to work in the arts and in non-profits,” he said.

VanValen’s impact went beyond a single class, though. He served as Schultz’s academic advisor and worked closely with Schultz throughout his time at Cornell.

“Jim VanValen had such a huge impact on who I am as a person,” Schultz said.

Other courses had sometimes surprising benefits when Schultz assumed his new role. The course Schultz took on conducting, for example, has paid dividends even though he doesn’t conduct the orchestra. It gave him a sense of the structure of a full orchestra, he said, and part of his job is setting up and providing support for orchestral performances.

His first-year writing seminar showed him the importance of communicating clearly and concisely, he said. And another course with VanValen, Voice and Movement, taught him not only acting techniques, but also how to interact with other people and to get his point across verbally and nonverbally.

These are important parts of what he’s now doing for Orchestra Iowa. He manages the organization’s Opus Concert Café, which is a performance venue that features jazz and cabaret music and is available for rental. Booking performers, coordinating events, and managing staffing all require him to draw on the interpersonal skills he learned in courses like Voice and Movement.

He also handles outreach to local schools and manages music programs like Orchestra Iowa’s Fifth Grade Fiddles program and the preschool Pied Piper program. And he coordinates with guest artists, including Broadway legend Bernadette Peters, who is performing in October. The variety of responsibilities calls upon the variety of skills he learned at Cornell, he said, which makes it challenging but rewarding.

“It feels really nice,” he said of having a job offer and starting work even before Commencement. “I’m someone who’s always looking to the future and trying to figure out what’s next. It’s great to have found something in the arts and a non-profit.”