Going back to school can spark both excitement and stress, as students navigate social circles and workload. For 21-year-old college student Ben Rolnick, who suffers from severe social anxiety, meeting new people and facilitating conversation present a challenge -- but that doesn't mean he doesn't think they're worth it. Rolnick offers his brief but spectacular take on seeking acceptance.

Walton Ford is a painter whose work examines the relationship between humans and animals in the wild. These creatures, he believes, "would rather be left alone." As a child, Walton was always inspired by the natural world and would bring a sketchbook to museums and zoos. Now focused on exploring wilderness beyond reality, Ford offers his brief but spectacular take on the imagined animal.

Actor and singer Utkarsh Ambudkar has appeared in the movie "Pitch Perfect" and television's "The Mindy Project." This fall, he'll star on Broadway in Lin Manuel Miranda's "Freestyle Love Supreme." But despite these high-profile performances, Ambudkar, who is South Asian, hasn't found it easy to avoid casting cliches. He shares his brief but spectacular take on making up his career as he goes.

For Aml Ameen, entertaining was a passion from childhood. At his request, the English actor's father sent him to drama school for 10 years. But it was a chance encounter with movie star Idris Elba that opened a path to honoring his Jamaican heritage -- while further developing his career. Ameen shares his brief but spectacular take on finding his own identity while portraying a character.

Although Prosanta Chakrabarty grew up in Queens, he always loved nature. The wonder of the world's creatures inspired him to study biology, a field that illuminates which of Earth's beings are related to one another -- and how an event in a single location of this interconnected planet can cause global repercussions. Chakrabarty offers his brief but spectacular take on life on Earth.

The documentary "Hale County This Morning, This Evening," about a community in the Alabama Black Belt, received an Academy Award nomination for best documentary earlier this year. RaMell Ross spent more than five years making the film, exploring the South as a black American from the North. He offers his brief but spectacular take on the black experience in documentary film.

Falu is a Grammy-nominated songwriter and performer who grew up in India, where she studied music religiously before even having the opportunity to touch a microphone. Although she had long blended American influences into her music, it wasn't until she moved to New York that she started creating in English. Falu offers her brief but spectacular take on finding identity through music.

Marcus Yam is a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times and the winner of two Pulitzers. Having covered California wildfires extensively, he is deeply familiar with the challenge of documenting tragedy and humanity up close. Yam offers his Brief but Spectacular take on the sensitivity and perspective he brings to his work.

New York artist Miguel Colon suffered for years before finally receiving a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, during a hospitalization. In the psychiatric ward, he did a lot of drawing, working on a graphic novel and realizing the "life-affirming" nature of creativity and how it brought other people to him. Colon offers his brief but spectacular take on learning to see himself.

The Brief But Spectacular team recently brought attention to the volume of sexual assault cases in the Navajo Nation. Now, Meskee Yanabah Yatsayte, leader of an organization that looks for missing persons from the Navajo community, explains this silent epidemic.