Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Student Outreach Corner
The Corner is the place where you can find updated information about our Western and Eastern Region Chapters direct from the mouths of our Student Outreach Coordinators. The Student Outreach Coordinators are the key communicators between local chapters and the Presidential Team. Here, our Student Outreach Coordinators can pay special tribute to those chapters doing an outstanding job in their regions.
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Hey out there. It’s Aimee – your Student Chapter Coordinator for the ‘Western Territory.’
From year-to-year, most student chapters struggle with the same problems but, as individual members, we enjoy a MUCH larger, diverse, set of benefits from participating in our respective student chapters.
This is a good thing gang.
As we grow, so will our energy and influence in the field. Speaking of our growth:
I’d like to officially welcome the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design to NAEA. I recently heard from Amy Fleischman, RMCAD’s Student Chapter President, who – along with friends – kick started their student chapter to life in Fall ‘07.
Here’s what Amy had to say:
“I am the current President of our RMCAD CAEA Student Chapter. The chapter was started in the Fall of 07 and is rather new, still developing really. I presented at the CAEA Fall conference in Pueblo Colorado on the topic ‘Surviving Student Teaching.’ It was a great success and was heavily attended. One of our goals is to get upper level students to present next fall. We have really been focusing on getting more student involvement on the state level but would love to have more information on how we could involve students on the National level. We plan on doing some fundraising this spring primarily to raise funds and supplies for a few low income local elementary schools.” - Amy Fleischman, Jan ‘08
What thrilled me the most was learning that RMCAD had a presence at its state art education conference – every student chapter should be attending and (ideally) presenting at their respective conferences.
Also, RMCAD’s interest in getting students involved on the national level is critical to our future. The more of us attending the national conference and participating at the national level – the more capable the leadership will be in addressing issues and fostering student chapter development.
To quickly tap into the National leadership and find out what you can do to strengthen your chapter, log onto the NAEA website: http://www.geocities.com/naea_students/chapters.html
To get to know your “western neighbors” – join the NAEA Vision West Network: http://naeavisionwest.ning.com/
You’ll find me there, and get to know what your friends in the west are up to.
So, here’s to a great year. Hope you’re making art, and/or teaching students, and always loving life.
Best,
Aimee Allen
NAEA - SOC, West
University of Arizona
What I learned as Outreach Coordinator in 2007:
Send me your comments @ Vision West(http://naeavisionwest.ning.com)
In truth, some student chapters don’t survive from year-to-year – they perish.
But why is this? Is this because a strong student chapter depends on a strong faculty advisor? Is this because chapters implode when the students with the largest amount of enthusiasm and commitment graduate? Is this because of lack of money? Is it because students are lazy?
Here are some reflections on the following questions. Send me a shout about your thoughts too. Peace.
1) Faculty Advisors
A student chapter must receive strong leadership from its faculty advisor in order to survive. This does not mean that advisors must attend meetings, or participate in the every day workings of the chapter. In fact, I've found that advisors with the strongest chapters do neither of these things.
What this does means is this: they should tell both potential students and incoming students about the student chapter and explain the benefits of membership in the wider organization; they should encourage and maintain contact and communication over the summer with their chapter’s leaders, and confirm that planning for the following school year has begun; they should provide meeting space; inform their chapter of upcoming events including, scholarship opportunities, travel grants, opportunities for public speaking, fundraising, etc…; they should advertise their chapter’s programs and initiatives with other faculty members and the administration; and they should encourage students from various divisions (like art history and art studio, etc…) to join as members of their student chapter. --- These are the kinds of resources and duties a faculty advisor can and must bring to a healthy student organization.
2) Graduating Enthusiasts
What is also common is NAEA student chapters start up because a crew of enthusiastic students breathe life into a chapter, participate and inspire others to join, benefit from their membership, but then fail to focus on sustainable leadership practices. They muck up the end game.
Subsequently, when these key students graduate, some chapters implode.
One of the easiest ways to avoid this is to hold officer elections in the early spring for the following school year. This way, chapters can organize themselves quickly to reinstate their membership, in October, with NAEA national, every fall. And, they can also oversee the start of goal-setting and progress for the upcoming school year.
If officers wish to return to their respective campuses as alumni, to find that their effort and commitment sprouted new life, they must consider and implement sustainable leadership practices.
3) Money
Lets face it – money matters. Fundraising is necessary. It will enable you to create public programs, like forums and workshops. It will enable you to support your fellow members as they travel to state and national conferences. This is why participating in the NAEA Student Chapter Myspace Community: http://groups.myspace.com/naeastudentchapter - and the cyber community NAEA Vision West (especially if you’re a chapter in the western states): http://naeavisionwest.ning.com – is so critical. Here you can discuss best practices for fundraising ideas, find out about conferences, learn what programs various chapters are developing. But, truthfully, my hope (with NAEA Vision West or any future cyber community) is that chapters are able to communicate about fundraising.
Wouldn’t it help your chapter to learn of a fundraising idea that helped a given chapter raise $3,000 for a weekend’s worth of effort? It would help mine, believe me.
4) Lazy
My experience, from the kindergarten level through master’s level students is this: students aren’t lazy – their either bored or indifferent. So this brings me back to the few ‘key,’ enthusiastic students who commit themselves to starting and sustaining an NAEA student chapter.
You’re special breed. You have leadership and community-building skills that can be taught, and that can inspire others. Unfortunately, this puts the burden on you to rally the students in your School of Art or College of Education to join NAEA. But the contribution and pay-off of your effort can be significant.
Once you have planted the seeds on your own campus and had the opportunity to watch them grow, I encourage you to take the next step by running for national office, or volunteering (like I have) as a Student Outreach Coordinator. We have little idea what kind of presence students can really have within the NAEA national community – and we have yet to see what kind of contribution we can make to the field of K-12 art education, pre-service training, museum education, and community arts.
Together, we can design the future of art education on a national level. We just need our roots to be strong enough that we maintain our health and strength each year.
Here’s to teaching, art making, and loving life,
Aimee Allen
NAEA, Student Outreach Coordinator – West
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