A high school art student has found her calling in an elementary school art club.
Mia Walker, a MacArthur High School junior who attends Scott Smith’s art class at Life Ready Center, has been interning at the after school art club at Pioneer Park Elementary School this year. It is while helping students explore their creative side that Walker has found her own pathway in life. The student who once thought she could never stand to be a teacher now can’t stand the thought of not being one.
“My mom's a teacher, and I always saw her up late working on her lesson plans. And I was like, ‘I can't do that. I can't do that’. And then I got here, and I was like, ‘I can definitely do that’, because I just love it so much,” Walker said.
Walker said after the Pioneer Park art teacher left last year, Smith at the LRC was asked to help teach the art club along with Katherine Gordon, Pioneer Park Makerspace teacher. Smith, in turn, asked Walker to assist. Walker immediately accepted, since she was already interning at the school.
“We sit there for like, about two hours, and it's amazing. I love it. I mean, it's so rewarding to sit with those kids and just watch their minds bloom as they start working on their art or get their hands dirty,” Walker said.
She said the experience of working with the young students has caused her to change her career goals from being an architect to being an art teacher.
“So I knew I loved kids. I just didn't know I love teaching. And then when I got in that atmosphere, I was like, ‘This is it? This is for me’,” she said. “It’s perfect for me. I just love these kids. It's the best part of my day.”
Walker said she would prefer to be an art teacher because she has always loved art.
“I used to be really into sculpting and paper mache, especially. I used to make little whales I could put on my wall, or dragons I can put on my wall. But now, recently, a lot of painting. I just recently got an easel and all fresh paints. I love to go upstairs and just paint for like, I could paint for hours on end, just nothing in the background, just painting. If I read my Bible and I like a verse, I kind of create a visual with it, and then paint that, that's where I get a lot of my ideas.”
Walker said it was an epiphany the first time she attended the art club.
“It was like a light switch immediately turned on. I could just see my future being in that classroom,” she said.
Even though she felt right at home in the classroom, it took a few sessions before she was ready to lead a group in a project.
“It was probably the fourth time that I actually started to teach it, just to get comfortable with it, because I didn't want to direct the students in the wrong way, just because they're so little, right? I wanted to make sure I was explaining it right. And then yesterday was the first time I ever did it by myself completely. And I think that went really well, and I really enjoyed it,” she said.
Walker said she plans to attend Oklahoma State University and minor in art. Although she is helping with elementary students, she said she would like to be a high school art teacher so she can do more complex projects with the students.
Since Walker is a junior, she hopes to not only intern at Pioneer Park next year, but to continue helping with the art club.
“It just fits me,” she said of the experience and of a future as a teacher.