As the Class of 2020 mourns the loss of their Senior Spring and spends time in social isolation instead of celebrating with champagne, The Argus remains committed to highlighting the accomplishments of those graduating during this frightening and uncertain time. To do so, we will keep publishing WesCelebs, and we are continuing to take nominations. Nominate on, and we’ll continue to confer members of the Class of 2020 to eternal Argus glory.
When Emily Litz ’20 first came to Wesleyan, she knew that her love for film would pair perfectly with Wesleyan’s Film Series. But little did she know that she would find a home on the Film Series film board. Fresh off of taking AP Environmental Science in high school, Litz also wanted to find a space on campus where she could engage with this newfound interest in studying the environment. With these interests in mind, she declared a double major in Film and Earth and Environmental Sciences (E&ES). At Wesleyan, these varying academic interests allowed Litz to not only serve as a projectionist for the Film Series, but also to travel all the way to Hawaii to study the soil of coffee plants. The Argus Zoomed Emily to talk about her time at Wesleyan, as well as most recent endeavors, which include organizing a Quarantine version of the Film Series and finding ways to make senior week a future possibility as the Class of 2020 Vice President.
The Argus: So, the first question I want to ask: Why do you think you were nominated?
Emily Litz: I’m a very outgoing, a very extroverted person. I’m definitely happiest when I’m with my friends. I went to a high school where it was always a huge ordeal to hangout with my friends. I didn’t have a car and not a lot of my friends lived close to me. So when I went to college, I kinda went crazy because it was so exciting to me that I could be around friends at like all waking hours and as much as I wanted to. I was also just so excited to be meeting so many cool, talented, smart, funny people. So I was very social, and my freshmen and sophomore year, I spent a ton of time in public spaces like Olin and Usdan. I tried to not be in my room—nothing about my roommates, shoutout to Audrey, Anjali, and Tiler with an “I.” Yeah, I just met a ton of new people and I had the time of my life just being very hypersocial and I feel like that’s why I was nominated. I’m also—I’m not sure what tense to use, I guess I haven’t graduated—I’m a Film and Earth and Environmental Science major and that weirdly exposed me to a large breadth of people…. Also, I definitely have very “Quiet Side” tastes but I also have a lot of “Loud Side” interests too. So there’s a breadth of people.
A: Did you live in the Butts by chance when you were freshmen?
EL: Yes! The Butts is the definition of breadth. I lived right on top of Summies in a triple with a bunk bed and it always smelled like Summies.
A: What was your favorite food to get at Summies?
EL: It used to be this mozzarella ball salad, this like caprese salad, but they don’t have that anymore. Now it’s a burrito bowl. If you have an alcohol you would like to mix, you can get free mixers at Summies.
A: That’s a life hack, one of the later questions I want to ask is “what do you want to tell your freshman self”—that could have been it. Speaking of film, your nomination also mentions that you are on the film board and that you are a projector, what does that entail?
EL: The film board is the ten student group that programs the Film Series. I’m also—I was, I don’t know what tense to use—I was also a projectionist for the Film Series. It was a really big part of my college experience. I made the trailers; that was my publicity role. Also, during this quarantine break, I had the idea to do a Wesleyan Quarantine Film Series with recommendations for people that are on streaming that the film board could come up with because I was missing coming up with ideas for the film series and publicity so we’ve been doing that and everyone should check it out. The Film Series is one of the coolest things about Wesleyan. Even before I applied, my friend’s brother who went to Wesleyan would be like, “Emily you would love Wesleyan so much. Four nights a week there are movies and you never see the same one twice in your four years.” I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I definitely felt like an outsider in the film department because I was like, “Do I have good enough tastes or seen enough old, niche movies?” I definitely had imposter syndrome and I was very surprised when I got on the film board. But, it has definitely been a huge part of my college experience and the Film Series is amazing. I have so many great memories from it and I’m so thankful that it exists. I’m thankful for all the people that have been on the board with me.
A: What’s your favorite film the Film Series has shown?
EL: My freshman year we had “Moonlight”, “Get Out”, and “Lady Bird” preview screenings. It was so amazing and I loved all of those. There are so many amazing memories I have from the Film Series.
A: Additionally, in your nomination it said you are—or were—a van driver. Do you have any fun stories from being a van driver?
EL: Honestly, I don’t have any really fun stories from when I was a van driver, I wish I did. One time Michael Roth came into the projection booth while I was projecting a Film Series movie. I guess…no that’s not even a fun story, scratch that. Okay, I feel bad, I have no fun things about van driving. What I did was I drove Wesleyan students to community service.
A: How long were you doing that for?
EL: I started doing it in the fall of senior year. But I’ve been a projectionist since sophomore year and I got on the film board my sophomore spring. I don’t know if that’s relevant.
A: Oh yes, it definitely is. Ok, so I was intrigued by what the person who nominated said and I wanted to know your reaction to it. It says “Emily Litz is the most celebrity of them all, I really feel like the ‘why’ here goes without saying but if this is not satisfactory, send me a follow-up message and I will happily wax celebratory of Emily for a while. Because she is a bad ass bitch and does lots to make campus a more fun place.”
EL: That makes me so happy. That’s like the best thing ever, that makes me so happy. Especially being not at school. That’s so crazy, wow.
A: One other thing they mention in your nomination is that you are the 2020 Class Vice President.
EL: Oh yeah.
A: What made you want to be a part of that?
EL: Well my friend Maximo [Lipman ’20] and I thought that we—it’s all about planning senior week—thought we could do a good job planning a really fun senior week that was as inclusive, as broad, and as accessible as possible. While also being really fun. We did it with Rebecca, Emilio, the other senior class officers. But it’s such a bummer that the events we planned cannot happen. We spent all year planning a really fun senior week and it’s not going to happen. We just hope that the seniors can get the celebration that they deserve some point in the future that is also accessible to as many seniors as possible.
A: Have you been in talks about that recently with the administration or anyone?
EL: We spoke to the WSA about reallocating the funds we got for senior week and instead putting them in the WSA Emergency Fund.
A: What’s your favorite memory at Wes?
EL: I have a lot of amazing memories. One thing that stands out to me is that one time, freshman year at like 2 a.m., on a wintery evening, two friends and I sled down Foss and it was so fun and so exhilarating. I highly recommend it. One other thing, recently this year I had to get my fingerprint fingerprinted for an official purpose. I had to go to the Courtyard Marriott in Farmington, Connecticut and three friends agreed to come with me. We had the best day ever and we saw Charlie Plummer, the main actor in “Looking for Alaska” the TV series outside the Courtyard Marriott in Farmington. Then we went to Panera and TJ Maxx and for some reason it was like the best day ever. I’m so glad they agreed to come with me to get fingerprinted.
A: Did you actually go up to Charlie Plummer?
EL: He was standing outside smoking a cigarette and I walked right past him and I didn’t say anything.
A: Connecticut is a weird place.
EL: I know.
A: Do you have a favorite memory of Connecticut? I don’t know if there is an answer to it.
EL: Well, we went on a bunch of field trips for Earth and Environmental Science during the Sophomore Seminar and one time we went, I think, what might be the tallest point in Connecticut. It was a beautiful day and we hiked. I think it’s called Mount Higby, it was awesome. I also went to the Yale library once with friends to study and that was awesome too.
A: Do you have a favorite class that you have taken?
EL: For E&ES all the seniors go on this all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii over Winter Break for a week. It was awesome, it was so much fun, so much bonding. The faculty advisors—Tim and Susan—were awesome. That was the best and we conducted research while in Hawaii.
A: What’s your favorite you have researched while being an E&ES major?
EL: I’ve kinda only done one research project—oh, I’m currently doing a research project. Well, the research project we did was on soil under coffee plants.
A: Speaking of coffee, what’s your favorite coffee place on campus?
EL: Dunkin’ Donuts, does that count?
A: Finally, anything you would say to your freshman self?
EL: The first thing I would say to my freshman self: Write stuff down and take more pictures. Every other year I kept a journal, and I also didn’t take a lot of pictures freshman year, and I’ve been very upset about it. Especially during quarantine, as I’ve been looking around trying to remember some of the best times from freshman year and I just can’t. I’ve been very angry that I didn’t do a better job trying to make sure that I remember certain things. I would also say to her to not do some of the things that keep me up at night that I did. But also I guess everyone does stuff like that and maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea to change the course of time. Ok, maybe or maybe not tell myself to do some embarrassing stuff. I would also say that Red & Black exists.
Justin Ross can be reached at jmross@wesleyan.edu