BFA graduate combines passion for art and teaching
Ida Zhang is learning Japanese and can tell you a bit about Ishikawa Prefecture along the Sea of Japan. Both will come in handy when the fine arts graduate, and recipient of the 2012 Concordia Art Education Prize, leaves this summer for Japan to begin her teaching career.
Zhang has earned a prestigious one-year teaching position from the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program, sponsored by the Japanese government. While she downplays her selection, the competition for JET positions is known to be very stiff.
She definitely merits the opportunity. Zhang received the Art Education Prize for demonstrating outstanding leadership and achieving the highest academic performance within the discipline.
Always modest, she prefers to focus on the educational adventure to come. “There’s a lot of samurai history in Ishikawa and it has a strong tradition in crafts, so I’m really excited about what I can learn,” she says.
Zhang exudes enthusiasm about everything that involves learning – whether it’s attending a national conference of art educators (who, by thinking about social justice and critical pedagogy, are improving education, in her view) or taking a course in ceramics (and integrating that tactile experience).
“She’s genuinely excited about learning and teaching,” says Juan Carlos Castro, an assistant professor in new media and digital culture, who had Zhang in his class. “She’s curious and is always willing to think of how to make things better for her students.”
Growing up, Zhang felt torn between being an artist and being a teacher. Art freed her spirit, but she also wanted to share her joy of learning. She was ecstatic when she realized she could do both.
“I decided to become an art teacher because I wanted to nurture the potential I saw all around me,” she says with her face lighting up.
Various internships arranged through the Department of Art Education have given her opportunities to nurture the potential in children ranging from kindergarten to high-school age.
Art classes accomplish so much more than just the production of objects, she says. They instill life skills, such as working in teams, and taking responsibility for cleaning up after a creative session.
Zhang particularly cherishes the time she spent with intellectually challenged people, first through the Katimavik program that engages youth in volunteer service, and later at the Lori Black Community Centre named in memory of the young intellectually disabled woman who inspired the centre’s creation.
“These are people who discover there are other ways to express themselves,” Zhang says. “Those who are non-verbal, for example, can speak with their art.”
Zhang will more than likely enhance the community of Ishikawa Prefecture, and wherever else she goes, just as she did in and around Concordia.
Related links:
• Read about more 2012 Great Grads in the Faculty of Fine Arts
• Department of Art Education
• Lori Black Community Centre
• JET program
• Ishikawa Prefecture