How My Teacher Changed Art for Me by Charlotte

How My Teacher Changed Art for Me by Charlotte - January 2025 Scholarship Essay

My art teacher has played an important part in my personal life, not just in my educational life. Between her being a family friend before I was born and having both my older siblings in class before me, I knew her before my high school career began. She is one of three teachers that I truly feel comfortable around.While talking with her I can be myself. I am a queer transgender teenager, and while we have ally teachers, my art teacher is part of the community herself. Because of this I know she’ll support me, and if I need anyone to talk about that topic I can go to her without feeling scared or embarrassed. Especially in cases of bullying or discrimination from other students. She doesn’t stand for any kind of disrespect, even if it’s self inflicted. Seeing how she interacts with her students shows how much she cares for them. She works hard to make her students happy with their projects. If you have an idea and are able to explain it with words or through sketches, she will try her hardest to make it a reality. Along with this comes her never ending belief in her students. She’ll never let a student give up. There have been many instances, especially in her ceramics class, where I have wanted to give up but have loved the end result and am glad she didn’t lose faith in my abilities. She also makes it important to talk about ways to keep art in your life. She’ll talk about how she’s working on a project at home, or will talk with students about any art they are doing outside of class. She’ll always joke with me about how I need to change my major into an art one for ceramics instead of zoology. And while we have fun joking about it, we have also talked about how I can keep working with clay on the side because she really did make me fall in love with this medium of art. The main college I’m considering going to has a clay workshop, and as long as students pay for the clay they let anyone use it, which is something we’ve discussed before. Furthermore, she has told me that I’m invited to go work with clay at her house, especially since her and my mom keep in touch and I plan to stay in touch with her as well. In the end my art teacher has done so much for me and I want to help her realize just how much her class has helped me. How much she has built my confidence, how she made me find my passion for art again, how I look forward to giving her life updates everyday, and how much it means when she can tell I’m not doing the best and ask if I’m okay. It’s refreshing seeing a teacher who obviously carries a deep passion for what she teaches and for her students. I love my art teacher and will miss her a bunch once I graduate, but any time I work on clay I’ll remember her and everything she has taught me.