My internship mentor, Hwang “Bo” Kim, is the assistant professor of Art at Palomar college. He teaches the Live Painting class, Life Drawing class and a Fundamentals of Drawing class.
When I asked him why he chose to work here, he told me that it had been a longstanding dream of his to teach art. He went to grad school when he was 40, his main goal was to restart his career in art, from which he’d been separated due in part to financial issues. He said that his professor remembered him fondly and suggested he teach a class, and provided the opportunity for him (Bo) to really experience teaching. As professor, Bo told me, learning and ability comes from experience. He relates it to parenting, when you don't know what to expect from a new responsibility, but that your passion and determination for art/sharing growth with the students will guide you. It makes you think about how you can communicate and deliver the experience in a way that the students can utilize their own systematic thinking. He went to several interviews for full time jobs before this one, through 7 years of teaching. He had an interview at Fullerton and Palomar, and the thing that prepared him most (and what they were looking for) was experience. Being a painter, and being serious about his own art helps him to relate to the students, resulting in a mutual effort to improve. I asked Bo if there was anything he wished he'd realized about the world of work when he was my age, and his response was similar to a topic of conversation that we talk about a lot. He believes, and wishes he knew then, that when you follow your passion and make it your life’s priority, life provides you with the tools you need. He told me about how his greatest regret was taking a detour from his pursuit of art, and his resulting financial crisis. He fell on hard times, debt, bankruptcy, and he told me about the moment he realized that he was paying the price for not following his passion. My workplace is Palomar community college I asked Bo what his advice would be about dealing with students and coworkers. He says that the most important thing when teaching a class in art specifically. Is to see the students as human beings before students, because they have a variety of needs and personalities. It’s important not to approach the class with his own agenda, and also be aware of their insecurities. In art education, it’s better to avoid a hierarchy of teaching because by nature, teaching art is more about recognizing and nurturing potential, thus you need an individualized approach to each students ideas. He told me that every teacher goes into a class a little nervous-it means they are aware that they are approaching a new group of people, and that he says is one of his favorite things about the job. Bo teaches 3 courses, 18 hours a week, lots of emails meetings committee meetings, and he says that every semester he tweaks assignments and incorporates new ideas, gets rid of old assignments that don’t work. “It is the most important thing to get along with other people in academia, you deal with people with high pride.” When you go to an interview, Bo tells me, you put yourself in the seat of the interviewer, through this extreme vetting process, and the first thing they look at is personality. It’s an observation of the potential for teamwork, if you can see yourself working with the person for 20 years down the line. It comes down to congeniality and emotional intelligence--- then they consider technical expertise.
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AuthorAudrey M. |