WCTC Career Outreach Experience

When Mark Rzeznik, the Associate Dean of Graphics, Engineering, and Diesel Tech at the Waukesha County Technical College reached out to industry professionals about the opportunity to speak at area middle schools about their specific career path, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Kids are hilarious in their own innocent ways. Being given the opportunity to be the “face” of Graphic Design for a day, to be able to teach and showcase what the industry is about and the kind of work you can do, was an extremely worthwhile and special experience for me. 

Alongside David Espurvoa (a Graphic Design professor at WCTC) and Christopher Mancheski (a K-12 Career Coach at WCTC’s outreach department), I visited Wisconsin Hills Middle School and Pilgrim Park Middle School. One of the most exciting things to me was the fact that the kids in each presentation (about 25 or so at each school) signed up to be there. They were that interested in the Industry and learning about it that they actually signed up to hear me talk. 
 
The discussions were broken up into a few different sections, and I began by instantly connecting the kids with brands that they know and are easily recognizable. Think McDonalds, Nike, and the like. It was a great way to instantly have them see and realize that they come into contact with Graphic Design every day. From there, I walked them through the schooling needed, current software, and possible days in the life of a designer in an office setting, followed by a freelance setting, I showed a wide variety of examples around what’s possible with design and ended my part of the presentation by showing them what is possible when design programs are combined. (A freelance video game art project another designer and I have been working on for a couple months now using code, Illustrator, and Photoshop). From there the discussion segued into David showing and discussing some of the work his students are creating. He tied their pieces into the points I had brought up, and Christopher facilitated discussion where appropriate. Once the presentations ended, students were given the opportunity to ask us questions, and we showed them the additional physical samples we’d brought along.
 
Two things I’ll always remember from the day happened at the first middle school – Wisconsin Hills. The exact question I don’t remember, but one student asked if she could become a designer because of her race (she mentioned that because of her race people have told her she couldn’t be a “designer” or an “artist”). It was an extremely eye opening moment for me and it got me instantly thinking about my favorite thing about design… the fact that it’s universal. It’s a language we can all see, feel, and understand.

After the first presentation wrapped up and I was collecting my things, another student snuck over and showed me the notecard that was intended for questions. However, this notecard was filled with drawings. Awkwardly, the student asked me “Can I show you my drawings? Can you tell me if they’re good?” Sensing how exciting and possibly scary this could be for a middle school kid asking an adult about if they think their artwork that they just spent the last hour on was good enough or not, I took a minute or two to really take in the images on the card. After a long pause I smiled and responded with “I think what you drew is great; you are very talented.” 

Feeling a little awkward myself, I then asked the student If I could show my sketchbook. Beaming at the chance to see what I had done and give an opinion on it, the student excitedly agreed, giving me probably their first artistic critique. 

Lady Bird Johnson, former first lady of the United States, was once quoted saying that “Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.” Reflecting back to the experience, to each and every student that asked a question, that took the time to volunteer to be there, whose eyes lit up at the examples of design that we showed them, that took the time to question what they love to do, and took a moment to show me personal work I say this:

I believe that each bright young student I came in contact with is extremely talented and capable of doing anything they set their minds to – They are all capable of being, being what they want to be. Walking into the presentations, I felt like the teacher. When we’d finished, I felt like the students learned a little about design and that I’d learned something about myself along the way. The future is bright. I cannot wait to see what these future leaders have in store for the world around us.  
 

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Nick Davis