Daemen College : Admissions : Meet our Students : Jennifer Wargin
Jennifer Wargin
Art Education
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, and next year, she’ll pursue her Masters degree at Buffalo State.
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.
What are your plans after graduation? Do you want to go to grad school?
I will be attending Buffalo State College for my Masters degree in the summer of 2010 and hopefully have a job teaching art.
What are your professional goals?
My main objective/goal is to become a teacher who can make a difference in children’s lives and make them express themselves in ways they could have never imagined.
Where have you done your observation hours?
I observed at Transit Middle, Big Tree Elementary, Clarence High School, and Sweet Home High School, and will be student teaching in both 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 have been a member of Art Club. What does the club have planned for this year? What activities were you involved in?
I was in charge of fundraisers and heavily involved in most every event we did as a club. Our main objective is to go to a city that has a lot of art history and knowledge, such as New York City. We went there last year and the club is actually going there again this year. Other than that, our main goal, outside of having fun, is an installation of a project that we create for Academic Festival in the spring. 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.
Your work is going to be a part of the Academic Festival Calendar. How did you feel when you saw your painting on the cover?
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!
Where do you see yourself in ten years? What do you hope to have accomplished?
I see myself as a full-time art teacher either in elementary or high school. I hope that I will make a difference for my students in their art work and for them individually.
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 love my major, because I loved going to class and learning new and interesting concepts and techniques to use in the real world.