Daemen College : Admissions : Meet our Students : Jennifer - Art Education
Jennifer - Art Education
Recent Daemen Graduate
Each student that comes through Daemen College will participate in some kind of service learning. Jennifer Wargin was no different. However, the time she spent at Grover Cleveland High School, planning and painting a mural with the students there, was what she calls an “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
For Wargin, a native of Alden, New York, that was just one of the many doors that were opened for her at Daemen. She travelled to New York City with Art Club, her oil on canvas painting, entitled “Paper white,” will grace the front cover of Daemen’s first-ever Academic Festival Calendar.
Would you recommend the art education program to others? What do you like best about the program?
I would highly recommend the Art Education program, because you learn both in the artistic and education world where you get pushed further than just the expected.
Do you have any advice for prospective students entering the art education program?
Make sure YOU the student feel comfortable on campus, meet the faculty in both art and education, and visit while classes are in session and get a feel for how the studios and regular classes are run.
Where did you do your observation hours?
I observed at Transit Middle, Big Tree Elementary, Clarence High School, and Sweet Home High School, Amherst High School and Alden Intermediate.
Where did you do your service learning?
This experience was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I worked with international students from Grover Cleveland high school where we painted a “peace” mural. Many of these students spoke very little English. We collaborated to come up with ideas and turned them into a visual for the mural. We taught them specific techniques about painting and we all learned a lot about one another before the end of the semester. We had a revealing of the mural that we installed in the high school where we invited all of the students we worked with and their families. It was an amazing feeling when I saw the students pointing out areas they worked on to their families and how they were so excited about what they accomplished. One student even came up to me and introduced her family to me and she told her family how much fun she had working with us. I know that this experience was something that will help me as a future educator and I am proud to say what we accomplished at Daemen.
You were a member of Art Club. What activities were you involved in?
I was in charge of fundraisers and heavily involved in most every event we did as a club. We went to New York City. We created a large map of NYC on our chalk wall with a picture that we took in NYC. They represented images that we would normally not see around Buffalo or the Rochester/Syracuse area.
How did you feel when you saw your painting on the cover of the first Academic Festival Calendar?
I really had no idea that the calendar was being created. I was honored when I found out I was chosen. It was a great honor and I was very pleased to have my painting on the cover!
What will be your lasting memory of Daemen?
I made a voice at Daemen, and I have made friends that will last me a lifetime. Also, how much I really loved my major, because I loved going to class and learning new and interesting concepts and techniques to use in the real world.