Studio Art Graduate Student Cecelia Phillips

Cecelia PhillipsMy experience being an IE mentor has been especially valuable for me since I am in my last year of graduate study. As a third year, I am dealing with undergraduate students in a AI class setting, teaching students foundational skills. However, this close study with a more advanced student not only lets me express myself and my own studio concerns with a peer but also makes me evaluate the process of how more advanced students should be taught and guided, how to generate ideas, and how to strongly see them through with a person that you respect and hope will one day become your contemporary in the field. In short, the IE Pre-Grad Internship has given me the opportunity to not only show a student the pros and cons of graduate study, but to also re-think my own trajectory and to re-affirm the choices that I made myself to arrive where I am at, and I celebrate that opportunity. I would welcome the opportunity again and my relationship with my student this year has been one that I will treasure and continue as she embarks on her own academic journey in the years to come.