Speaker 1:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the host and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Speaker 2:

I am going into my last semester of chemical engineering.

Speaker 3:

I'm a senior journalism major.

Speaker 4:

And I'm minoring in supply chain and operations management.

Speaker 5:

I'm a biochemistry major.

Speaker 6:

Classes are going great, extracurriculars are going great.

Speaker 7:

I'm an RA on campus.

Speaker 6:

I'm thriving.

Jason Meggyesy:

Hi, I'm Jason Meggyesy and this is Major Insight. This is the podcast where we talk college life with amazing students about how to find your place and purpose on campus.

Music performance and zoology define two different sides of James Lukenda. He is not only studying animals in an academic setting, he’s also the first violin in the Miami University Symphony Orchestra, and he’s active on campus as the vice president of the Miami University Audubon Bird-Watchers Society. 

And today he’ll talk about how his different interests work together in surprising ways, how music has improved many aspects of his life, and how a lifelong love of animals is preparing him for a meaningful career after graduation.

[Music fade]

So, today we are here with a very interesting man. First and foremost, tell us: Who you are?

James Lukenda:

I'm James Lukenda. I'm a junior and my majors are zoology and music performance. And I play the violin.

Jason Meggyesy:

Like I said, a very interesting mix of things. Just to start off, tell me where you're from and kind of what it was like growing up in your area.

James Lukenda:

Well, I'm from New Jersey. I'm from a town called Montclair, New Jersey. It's sort of the suburbs of New York. We're about eight miles from New York. And I went to a cooperative school, so it's very interactive. We learned a lot with hands-on experience and our parents were heavily involved in our education, which was a really great experience for me growing up. I learned all about different cultures and different animals and nature and music and all that, which was amazing. Then high school, I went to a private school that I didn't enjoy so much. I didn't have quite the same experiences I had in my elementary and middle school, but it set me up nicely for college.

Jason Meggyesy:

Cool. So, would you say that that elementary experience was probably more formative for you than your high school experience?

James Lukenda:

For sure. For sure. Yeah. That sort of opened any door I could possibly want in terms of just fostering curiosity and critical thinking. I could choose any path I wanted to after that.

Jason Meggyesy:

With that experience you said there was a lot of avenues that you could pursue. When did zoology really kind of come on to your radar as something that you could do and then what aspects of it finally drew you to saying, "Okay, I want to study this"?

James Lukenda:

I think I was always drawn to animals. Something about animals was... They're just special somehow. And I definitely remember in first grade wanting to own a zoo, it was my dream job. My main books in first, second and third grade were animal encyclopedias. And it was just reading constantly and learning about animals. And definitely by high school, I knew I wanted to pursue zoology as a course of study. Another formative year was second grade, actually, right after that, every student picked two animals to study throughout the year, one, each semester. I chose the Flamingo and the cheetah. Flamingos are still my favorite animal from second grade, but we really dove deep into those animals and the environments they lived in and the culture surrounding them. And since those are both African animals, we learned about the Maasai people and the Serengeti and Tanzania and Kenya and that area. And it was just amazing what was out there.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. And I think that's awesome. You just touched on it, studying the animals kind of reflected and helped you learn about the culture in where they're found. Right? It's like a direct translation to the people that live around them, and I think that's an aspect of zoology that people might not understand. So flamingos, why flamingos then? That was another question that popped out to me.

James Lukenda:

In visually flamingos are one of the most stunning animals and especially among birds, they're just bright pink and they're really tall. And they have this bizarre beak that they can only eat when their head is upside down. There's so many weird things about them and they're like nothing else on the planet.

Jason Meggyesy:

So I know zoology is obviously a passion of yours study-wise, but you also mentioned being a violin major. When did that kind of come into the fold during your childhood?

James Lukenda:

It's funny. I actually started violin before any of that zoology stuff. I was five years old and I started doing violin lessons through my school, so I always just stuck with it. My parents rarely pushed me to practice. It was always me saying, "Oh, I just want to be really good." I was really happy when I played. And it's also like an emotional outlet. And I always knew I wanted to keep music in my life. Maybe not necessarily as a college major, but it's always been so important to me and even playing now, it's something so emotional about it and human about it.

Jason Meggyesy:

No, that's beautiful, man. I think you hit it right on the nose. It's very much a human experience to play an instrument. I remember when I was younger, it's probably one of the biggest regrets, and I don't like to say I have regrets, but it's one of the biggest regrets I have for my childhood is I played a handful of different instruments, but I didn't keep any of them. But that's when you're like 12, 13, and I was like, "No, I'm going to play basketball." Like this. You know what I'm saying? And none of them stuck for me, but no, I still do have that appreciation for the sound. So what about the violin drew you to that specific instrument?

James Lukenda:

I think the music you can play on a violin is really good. Just our repertoire is really wide and there's a lot of pieces and almost every composer wrote for the violin. Other styles of music used violin. And that's sort of not found in a lot of other instruments.

Jason Meggyesy:

Got you. You got a favorite song you like to play that we would know?

James Lukenda:

Oh. That you would know.

Jason Meggyesy:

Or what's your favorite piece? What's your favorite piece anyway?

James Lukenda:

I would say my favorite piece is Bach's Partita No.2.

Jason Meggyesy:

Okay. I don't know that one. I don't know that one.

James Lukenda:

Yeah. It's really famous among classical musicians.

Jason Meggyesy:

Gotcha.

James Lukenda:

It's really amazing. And Bach wrote this right after his wife died. And so, it's full of grief and full of raw emotion and it's sort of the best violin writing that ever happens. And so, that's probably my favorite piece.

Jason Meggyesy:

That's beautiful, man. All right. So, now kind of bringing it back onto the track of school. You're a senior in high school now and they're like, "All right, time to choose a college." What makes you come from New Jersey to Oxford, Ohio? And what other schools were you looking at? All that kind of stuff.

James Lukenda:

So, I was looking at schools for zoology. That was what I was going to base my judgment on. And so, on the East Coast I was looking at Cornell and Duke and then I was looking at a lot of California schools as well, mostly it was Berkeley, Davis and San Diego, and then it was Miami. And I think a lot of people don't realize this, Miami is the number two school in the country for zoology right behind UC Davis. But California's really far from New Jersey. I was able to get into the California schools and Miami. And so, it was between here and UC Berkeley and UC Davis and Miami gave me money as well, and on top of that, it's sort of a small community and the zoology major is really excellent. And I think I realized if I went to the bigger schools, the California schools, I wouldn't be able to do more than just zoology, especially UC Berkeley. It's really intense school. I'd be there... Just biology. I wouldn't be able to sort of get a wider education, and at Miami I'd definitely can do that.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. So do either of these things ever overlap? How do they kind of work in tandem with you as a person, if they even do?

James Lukenda:

I always like to think they sort of occupy different spheres. They cover the intellectual versus emotional side, though, I definitely think you gain skills from both of the majors that help with the others, especially music. And I know a lot of graduate schools and medical schools will look at a music major favorably because we learn discipline and we learn how to improve with ourselves, because we spend so long in practice rooms by ourself, critically analyzing everything we do. And so, it's a really disciplined art and that translates into your further life, but also into studying for zoology and doing research, so skills like that that you sort of gain and can pass between the majors. And I guess in zoology, you sort of learn a scientific way of thinking and that's actually, I think, more helpful in music than people imagine.

James Lukenda:

And my violin professor, Dr. Harvey Thurmer, is really into the scientific aspect of especially how we move our bodies. And really practice room is just we're moving our bodies in the way that makes the best sound, that's sort of what it is. And so, there's ways to move your body that are smoother, that requires scientific thinking of analyzing yourself and really figuring out what's best objectively. Maybe it's not what you want to do. Maybe you have to change your whole technique.

Jason Meggyesy:

What are the two classes from each major that you've found to be the most interesting that have given you the most? Because I mean, that sounds like a pretty interesting class, right? Shifting your body in different ways that you wouldn't naturally think about doing it.

James Lukenda:

We interact with my violin professor for lessons. So we have a studio class, all the violinists sit in a room and someone plays and then we give feedback and all that. And our professor's there also giving feedback. And part of that class is, we have one lesson a week. We go and we play for our professor and he gives us tips and helps us practice. And so, that is a really interesting class. It's one we have to do, all eight semesters we're here. So, it's not really a unique class. In terms of like a unique class in the music major that I found really interesting, it's probably going to be an aural skills class.

Jason Meggyesy:

Can you explain what that is?

James Lukenda:

It's the way we hear music. We have to be able to hear music in a specific way to help us practice and perform. And so, we learn how to identify chords and identify different melodies and write down what we hear. And then also reproduce that by singing, so the class is called aural skills and sight singing, aural with an AU. I'm currently in advanced to aural skills and sight singing, which is the junior level, where we learn really unique things about music. We learn medieval music theory and we learn 20th century music theory. And you hear a lot of music that, at least I had never interacted with or heard at all. And we learned how to analyze it and sing it back, as well, which was really fascinating.

Jason Meggyesy:

And then on the zoology side, what's a classroom there?

James Lukenda:

Well, I think my favorite class that I've taken so far is what I'm currently in, which is animal behavior, which is what I want to go into, it's what I want to study. And we learn basically how behavior evolved, because I think a lot of people don't realize behavior is genetic, behavior is something that has selective pressures put on them in the wild, and certain behaviors are more advantageous to individuals, and it shifts the way you look at animals and shifts the way you look at behavior.

Jason Meggyesy:

Have you ever had to combat what are you going to do with this question?

James Lukenda:

Yeah, I definitely have had to combat that from both angles, the zoology and the music. Currently, my plan is to go into zoology. And so, I have a lot of people ask, "What does a zoologist do?" There's a lot of things zoologists do. Personally, I want to go into research and become a professor, but I know a lot of people who use a zoology major to get into med school or vet school or dental school. And also you can go work for the government, the Fish and Wildlife Services or the National Park Services. And there's a lot of field work you can do with corporations, with other nonprofits. So there's tons of work you can do. And actually the demand for zoologists is always increasing as our climate changes and as animals become more endangered and more imperiled. So, it's really important to preserve the ecosystems and that's something that zoologists are trained to do.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. The ignorant thing is to just think that studying zoology, you're going to go work in a zoo or something like that. Right?

James Lukenda:

Yeah. I get that a lot.

Jason Meggyesy:

They don't understand the whole academic discipline, that you can study animal behavior and be an academic in that field.

James Lukenda:

I definitely think the word zoo in the major makes people think, "Oh, you're going to go into a zoo." And some people do and that's perfectly fine. And that's a really interesting career path as well, but the vast majority of zoology majors never even think about becoming a zookeeper or anything like that.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. So I mean, man, you can't just be doing class all the time. I mean, I'm sure it's a big part of the experience, but talk to me about what kind of clubs and organizations you're involved with and how that's all kind of helped to shape your experience in college.

James Lukenda:

So with music, actually, there's a big overlap between classes and clubs and a lot of extracurricular time is spent working towards what are technically classes, you get credit for it. But the orchestra is also a student organization with a president and a board, and I spend a lot of time doing that as well. And then I am also the vice president of the Birders at Miami University, also we're called the Audubon Society of Miami University. So, basically we'll go out and just birdwatch and we will take different trips. There's a lot of places around here. There's Hueston Woods State Park, there's Fernald Preserve down in Hamilton County, there's Whitewater State Park across the border in Indiana. There's all these places where you can go and observe. And so, is very related to my major, and I think really everything I do is sort of related to one of my majors, just because I'm majoring in what I really love to do.

Jason Meggyesy:

So, I mean, it seems like you kind of knew what your lane was from an early age. Right? And that's, I don't want to say a luxury, but it's a special thing because not a lot of people have that. So, what would you say to somebody who may not be in your shoes, but they may be a little more apprehensive on choosing a specific major because they don't really know if that's what they're down for or things like that. You know what I'm saying?

James Lukenda:

Yeah. I definitely think the way to go is just to try a lot of different things, dip your toes in every thing. And whether that means in high school, maybe doing a lot of extracurricular activities and doing some research on your own about things you're interested in, regardless of what classes you're in, trying different sports in different seasons and arts maybe, and just dipping your toes in everything. And then when you come to college, maybe you come in as undecided or as a major you think you might like, but take classes in a lot of different areas in college also, there's tons of clubs and there's clubs for everything. Every single time I hear someone is part of a club, I'm like, "Wow, I've never even heard of that club."

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Yeah. Same with you. I never heard of the birdwatcher club, but I'm sure, like you said, there's a club for everything. And I think this whole conversation that we've had and I've had conversations with other students about it too, is just the rigid view of college, that it's like, "I need to come in here and it has to be this straight line, linear progression that I'm going through for four years." But in order to really... I've found to really find that passion is to maybe veer off into this lane for a little bit, then maybe come back onto the center lane and then go back this way. Right? It's about gathering experiences and having all these different points of views, right?

James Lukenda:

Yeah. For sure.

Jason Meggyesy:

Obviously, you can't go through college... I mean, you build this community of friends, of peers, but you can't do any of this without professors as well. So, are there any specific professors you'd like to shout out? I know you mentioned a few earlier.

James Lukenda:

I mentioned Dr. Thurmer, who's my violin professor, has been a huge mentor to me personally and musically and academically as well. And I definitely have to shout out Dr. David Russell, he's a zoology professor. He's the person who I do research with and who's the mentor for the birding club. And I go birding with him on a personal basis as well, occasionally and I've taken his classes. He's almost the person I want be as a professor, really interested in a lot of different areas, so he's someone I look up to. And then the other big faculty member that I've interacted with is Teresa Radomski-Bomba , who's my honors advisor, who has really helped me talk through grad schools and talked through study abroad and my plan for college in general. She's sort of kept me focused on what I need to do to succeed in college. And so, she's been really influential in that.

Jason Meggyesy:

That's awesome, man. And now the last one I have for you is, you're 18 year old James walking on campus with your violin. What advice would you give him for the next three years?

James Lukenda:

I think sort of what I was talking about earlier, being more engaged with clubs and extracurricular activities. I know freshman year I went to Mega Fair and saw all these clubs, and I put my name down for a lot of them and I really didn't engage with many of them, like the bird club I wasn't super into at the beginning and now of course, I'm vice president. But getting into that earlier and meeting more people through those clubs, I think, definitely would be something I would advise myself to do. And I'd say the other piece of advice I'd give myself is not to limit myself to these strict paths and coming in with an idea of where you want to be and what you want to do is nice but in some ways it's also like a curse because you're so sure. And then any doubt comes up and you sort of have this crisis that's a little too late. So, just having my mind open is something I would definitely wish I had done and all that.

Jason Meggyesy:

Well, regardless, man, I think whatever you end up doing, you're going to do a great job at it. You seem very passionate about the things-

James Lukenda:

Thank you.

Jason Meggyesy:

... That you're involved with. And all of my questions were answered. This was a very interesting conversation. One that I've never had before. So I appreciate you coming on today.

James Lukenda:

That’s awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

Jason Meggyesy:

James Lukenda is a junior studying zoology and music performance at Miami University. After graduation he plans to continue studying zoology in graduate school.

And thank you for listening to Major Insight. If you enjoyed this podcast, share with your friends or anyone interested in navigating college life, many more episodes are now available wherever you get your podcast.