Lucas Ospina found the inspiration to pursue his passions from his fellow Hampshire College students. “I came to Hampshire and met people who encouraged and inspired me, “ he recalls. “Physically, and figuratively, the campus is really conducive to learning.”

Ospina, who just finished his first year, has immersed himself in film studies. “Before coming to Hampshire, I wanted to do documentary film. Then, I got really into analog filmmaking, and bought my own 16 mm camera,” he says.

In addition to film, a class called “Rethinking Childhood” that Ospina took with Professor of Childhood Studies Rachel Conrad piqued his interest in poetry. “{The class} got me thinking about my childhood from a poetic perspective, and I’ve been writing a lot of poetry since.”

Ospina is considering many possibilities for his Division II studies, including a project that combines the literary and filmic studies he worked with in his first year. “I’ve never done screenwriting,” he says, pointing to that as a potential way to combine the two. “I want to combine film and words, literally, to try and find the qualities of one in the other.”

“I definitely am reserving a period of time for myself to experiment with different forms.”