Arts in Education

Students

Extracurricular Activities—Spring 2007

HGSE Arts in Education Program students participate in a variety of on- and off-campus activities, including internships in arts-related nonprofits, work-study jobs at Harvard, volunteer contributions to museums, art centers, and schools, and credit-worthy projects conducted under the supervision of the HGSE Field Experience Program.  

Simone Monique Barnes: Through a course offered by the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, I've been taking hand drumming classes, learning West African rhythms for djembe, dun dun and conga with a teacher from Drum Connection.  I also work part time in Gutman Library in Special Collections, and I am on the board of the Rhode Island Black Storytellers (RIBS).

Kirsten Bermingham: I have a work-study position with the AIE office, assisting with office duties, program communications and displays of student artwork. I’m also interning with the Office of Curriculum Standards at the Massachusetts Department of Education, where I am helping to review the current art frameworks, researching assessment options and participating in meetings of regional art directors and teachers.

Eyenga Bokomba: I’m here on a fellowship from the Bush Foundation in Minnesota, and I am one of 40 Harvard students chosen by the Women in Public Policy Board at the Kennedy School to be part of this year’s Harvard Square to the Oval Office cohort – for Harvard women considering public office.  In my extracurricular time, I participate in ALANA activities and work with the HGSE Student Coalition for Justice, a group that recently marched in Washington to encourage the Supreme Court to maintain affirmative action policies in the schools.

Julie Bradley: I'm in my second and final year as a part-time AIE student.  I continue to work as research project coordinator at Harvard School of Public Health and to teach dance at a local dance studio.  Also, I have been serving on the advisory council of the Children's Discovery Museum in Acton, MA.

Emmy Bright: This semester I collaborated with a wonderful group of HSGE students to produce The Blackboard Project, an interactive chalkboard installation for the Alumni of Color Conference 2007. This installation was the result of multiple collaborative processes including a movement workshop, photoshop design and painting of the blackboards. The collaborative process extended into to the conference where participants used chalk to add their own marks and words to the 8'x8' blackboard panels. This installation sought to transform the space and engage students and alumni in a visual dialogue about race, representation and experience. I am also working with Wendy Luttrell on her Making Culture Visible: Children's Photography, Identity and Agency research project. To this end, I am teaching 6th grade students in Worcester, Mass., to use photography and video editing as a form of group and self-portraiture. Exhibitions of the student photography and video will be held in the spring at Gutman Library and in Worcester.

Julie Brown: The fall semester was my last one as an HGSE student.  I began taking classes two years ago as a nondegree student, on the Tuition Assistance Plan for Harvard employees, and continued as an enrolled AIE part-time student while working at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Melanie Brown: I serve as the Vice President of Diversity for the Student Government Association where I am organizing the Multicultural Festival: Education through Celebration for later this spring.  This huge event is a great tradition at the school and celebrates the various cultures represented here at HGSE.  In addition to my work with SGA, I sit on the Multicultural Adivsory Committee and have been assisting with the ALANA Anthology headed by another AiE student, Brittnay Reed.  I have also enrolled in some great classes this semester and am finally dancing again in a Broadway Jazz class offered at the Harvard Dance Center. 

Danielle Cavanna: I am doing an Field Experience Program internship at the Fogg Art Museum with the Coordinator of Public Programs on school-museum partnerships. I also am an Alumni Ambassador for Trinity College, Hartford, serving as a liaison between the college and prospective students.

Connie Choi: I'm an intern with Artful Adventures and the Community Arts Initiative at the MFA, Boston, where I am also starting to lead Artful Adventures tours. In addition, I work part-time at a teacher/administrator placement company for independent schools.

Jen Chua: I take a ceramics class through the Office of the Arts at Harvard, and spend a lot of my spare time in the studio there.  Three of my recent clay creations, including one from a series of vases called Floating Utopia, are on display in the hallway outside of the AIE office.

Edward Clapp: I work as a research assistant for Project Zero.  I’m also a member of the HGSE Philosophy of Education student group, a staff member and contributing writer to the Appian, HGSE’s student-run newspaper, and a member of the MIT Outing Club.  Outside of HGSE, I am at work on my second play, Fed Like an American, which will be produced in the summer of 2007 by Collective Hole Productions.  I am also collecting people’s souls as part of the Soul project: www.drawyoursoul.org. 

Arika Cohen: I am in the SAMI program at Harvard (the Student-Alumni Mentoring Initiative), and I teach middle school drama at the Cambridge Friends School. The drama program includes five student plays a year. This year's projects: Macbeth (8th grade), The Nobody Omelette (an original play written by the 7th grade), A Highly Edited And- In Some Cases- Rewritten Version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged (7th grade), The Princess Bride (6th grade), and the 8th Grade Spring Play (which I wrote this year!!!). I will also teach at the Beyond IQ Conference in April (a fantastic conference for highly gifted and talented kids and parents). Finally (and happily!), my poem "For My Son" will be published in the Dudley Review!

Ilana Cohen: I have been working as Assistant Education Coordinator at VSA arts of Massachusetts, with Nicole Agois (AIE '06) and others.  As an affiliate of VSA arts International, we promote arts and cultural access for people with disabilities, and develop curriculum-based arts lessons for schools, with an eye towards inclusive education and individual needs.  VSA runs artist residencies throughout Massachusetts, and provides community-based arts programming for children, teens, and adults with special needs.  We are currently working on developing and implementing a "community of practice" model to promote collaboration and excellence among VSA teaching artists.
James Coley: I am a member of the Social Justice Arts Group.  I am also a member of BSU (the Black Student Union) as well as ALANA.  On top of that, I am a member of the Harvard Boxing Club (I think their slogan is: "It hurts, but it's fun" ...it should be their slogan in any case).

Talya Dornbush: I am participating in the aLTeRed group that is working to expand the notions of educational settings, pedagogies and curriculum. I’m a member of the Bridge group, which links students from the Graduate School of Education, Kennedy School of Government, and the Business School. I am also doing an FEP with Project Zero researching the Harvard University Art Museums Study Centers.

Susan Foster: I am the Education Coordinator at the Commonwealth Museum in Boston, where I teach the field trip groups.  When I'm not at HGSE or at the museum, I volunteer for Horizons for Homeless Children, an organization that sends volunteers into community shelters to play with kids for a few hours per week.  We play games, do homework, and have a ton of fun.  I also volunteer for NARAL pro-choice Massachusetts and help them with their big fundraiser each spring called Chocolate Madness.  I also play the flute and join the Harvard Summer Band each year so that I can play with other community members.

Emily Funkhouser: By far, my favorite “extra-curricular activity” this semester has been collaborating with several of my AiE peers in the design, production and implementation of The Blackboard Project - an interactive art installation which premiered at this year's Alumni of Color Conference and will hopefully be resurrected in other forms in months to come.  This winter, at Harvard’s Student Research Conference, I presented a paper on the impact listening to music has on viewing work in a museum.  I continue to work independently in my studio on mixed-media pieces.

Joy-Leilani Garbut: I work as a research assistant at the Lab for Developmental Studies running adult music cognition experiments.  I am also a member of the Harvard Organ Society, a student group that organizes and performs several concerts throughout the year.

Marjorie Gere: Through the 21st Century After School Program in Somerville, I lead a club for elementary school students called the Musical Inventors Club.  In this club we improvise, compose, and record music for instruments we build out of household materials.  I play violin, compose music, build puppets, and think about the intersection between arts learning and second language learning.

Aliza Greenberg: I work at the American Repertory Theater as a Project Assistant in the Development Office.  I am also a member of the Social Justice Art Collaborative, which seeks to explore diversity, identity, human rights, and other issues through the arts.

Felipe Herranz-Sanchez: I am an Associate of the Real Colegio Complutense in Cambridge, which is an institution that promotes academic exchanges between students and scholars from Harvard University, the Complutense University in Madrid, and other Spanish universities. As an Associate of the RCC, I support and promote the work of the Spanish researchers at Harvard. The RCC Lectures (Thursdays at 7:30pm) and the Spanish film series (Fridays at 7:30pm) are free and open to the public. Location: 26 Trowbridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Ian Hersey: I serve on HGSE’s Multicultural Advisory Council, co-chair the HGSE Pride committee, and coordinate meetings of the AIE Phorum (not to be confused with HGSE’s Askwith Education Forum) – a Thursday-night arts workshop and discussion group. If you watch TV, you may have seen me acting in recent commercials for Diet Pepsi and Blue Cross/Blue Shield – and in recent episodes of Law and Order and America’s Most Wanted.

Erin Jenkins: I volunteer at the Amigos School in Cambridge as a Reading Buddy to a second grader, in a collaborative program of the HGSE Office of School Partnerships and Cambridge School Volunteers, Inc. (Lately I have been reading Curious George to my buddy.)

Nathan Johnston: I am a member of the Social Justice Arts Group and also the Balinese Gamelan Orchestra. I'm also in the Composer's Colloquium with the Harvard Group for New Music.

Srivi Kalyanasundaram: I work as a research assistant for Project Zero and am involved in designing a website on the theme of globalization with resources for secondary school teachers for the interdisciplinary studies project. I also work as the front desk assistant at the Learning Technologies Centre. I have also been working with the editorial board of the Alana Anthology. I was also part of the blackboard project and oral history project for the AOCC. Outside HGSE, I am illustrating grade 2 and grade 4 math books for the Indian Government's Educational organization – NCERT – National Council for Educational Research and Training.

Anne Kindseth: I work with Step into Art, a non-profit organization that "provides dynamic, content-rich art education programs that actively engage children with great works of art from Boston-area museums." (See www.stepintoart.org.) I will receive course credit from the HGSE Field Experience Program for the work with Step into Art. I am also conducting an evaluation of the Learning Lab exhibition at the MIT Museum for the museum’s education department.

Kenneth Kwok: I am continuing to serve as editor of the Singapore-based e-magazine, the Flying Inkpot Theatre Reviews. I also volunteer once a week at a youth shelter in Cambridge. I recently presented a paper on theatre criticism as an educational tool at the Student Research Conference and was also involved in the Alumni of Color Conference and AIE Concert Night as a student helper and performer respectively. I am also a proud member of the AIE Trivia Night team!

Danielle La Senna: I am a work-study assistant at the AIE office, coordinating student artwork exhibits, program communication, and general office assistance. I am also doing an FEP with Project Zero at the Harvard University Art Museums, where we are studying learning in the Study Centers. I recently helped organize (along with two of my fellow AiE students, Kirsten and Kaelyn, and of course, Scott Ruescher), emceed, and sang at the AiE Conroy Cabaret Performance.

Lucia Lee: I'm in the midst of designing a visual arts curriculum that may help reluctant learning/reading-disabled learners in the elementary level begin to enjoy reading.  I’m doing it for a year-long class...and we're turning in our proposals soon – but I plan to stick with this project beyond the end of the year.

Tavis Linsin: I have been working on qualitative and quantitative research projects at Cambridge College as they develop their new Ed.D. program.

Allynn Lodge: I work at a non-profit film and television company on a series of documentaries about life in America's prisons.

Paula Lynn: I am a Research Assistant at Project Zero with the Harvard University Art Museums. I am also doing an FEP at the MFA, evaluating learning outcomes from the Thinking Through Art program at four elementary schools.

Lorielle Mallue: I contributed my 2005 video – entitled Self: by Alison Carsen – to the fall 2006 AIE visual art show at Gutman Library.  I wrote, directed, and acted in this project as a student in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television “director’s spotlight” show.  The video won a Student Emmy this year and has been short listed for a Planet Out award of $10,000.

Beau Martin: I work as coordinator of the ROUNDS group, a Saturday-morning roundtable discussion group for teachers that was founded by AIE director Steve Seidel.  Also with Project Zero, I work on the Making Learning Visible (MLV) Project applying Reggio Emilia techniques with local school districts.  Visit the following website to find out more about ROUNDS and MLV: www.pz.harvard.edu/mlv

Robin Masi: A three-dimensional piece from my installation-art contribution to the 9/11 Witness Project was recently on display (in December 2006) in the lobby of University Place, 124 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, MA.

Jane Myung: I am part of Alumni of Color Conference as a co-chair of the Communications and Publicity committee. I also work as a research assistant/after school tutor at a housing project, serving k-12 students and facilitating arts workshops.

Meg Nicoll: I am working on the Qualities of Qualities research project at PZ. I also intern at the Community Partnerships Program at the MFA.

Barbara Palley: For my work-study job I am a research assistant at Harvard Project Zero on the "Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts Education and How to Achieve It."  Currently, we are looking for trends in what the programs we've visited across the country have identified as quality teaching and learning in the arts. For my spring project in the S301 AIE core course I am piloting imaginative play activities for early childhood visitors to art museums.

Keon-Ryeong Park:  I contributed a large painting called Nature (acrylic on wallpaper) to the recent AIE art show at Gutman Library.  It has been displayed on the wall outside of the AIE office since the show ended.  (Some have wondered whether the little mouse in the foreground, looking up fearfully at the big bull in the middle ground, might represent the arts in the larger public realm, the artist or educator in a difficult situation, or the student in the presence of an authority figure who restrains our vision….) 

Sarah Powell: I'm working at the HGSE Fall phone-a-thon raising money for the school, and I work the front desk of the Cronkhite Graduate Center.

Ricky Ramon: I work with students in the theater department at the Boston Arts Academy teaching master classes on acting and directing and working with them on the college admissions process.  I also work with the COACH program at West Roxbury High School.  The program exposes and assists underrepresented students with the college application process.

Genieve Rankel: I teach math part-time at the Buckingham, Brown, and Nichols School in Cambridge, attend AIE part-time, and take dance classes (one in ballet, another in Broadway musical dancing) in the new studios of the Harvard Dance Program in my extra time!

Brittnay Reed: I am a part of the Harvard Radcliffe Chorus and work as the literary editor of the Alana Anthology that will be published in late April.

Kerstin Roolfs: Through HGSE School Partnerships, I am a Reading Buddy at the Amigos School.  I am also part of Harvard’s Student-Alumni Mentor Initiative.

Jen Ryan: I attend AIE part-time, work as education director of the Lewiston/Auburn Art Center near my home in Maine, and work part-time with the “Qualities of Quality” research project at Project Zero.

Ashley Rybowiak: I am a research assistant with the “Qualities of Quality” project at Project Zero.

Andrea Sachdeva: I am part of the “Arts Collaborative Group," an organization created this year by AIE students. 
Joanne Seelig: I am working as a research assistant for Project Zero's Cultures of Thinking Project. In addition, I am a 4th-6th grade after-school drama teacher for the 21st Century Community Learning Program and a "Reading Buddy" at the Amigos School through Harvard's School Partnership Office.

Kaelyn Sophabmixay: I am a full-time HGSE student –I perform with the Harvard Wind Ensemble (flute) and am actively working on creating a series of AiE arts performance events with a spectacular team. The March 10th cabaret was a hit, so please join us at the next performance evening before the year is out! (See the “events” page of this website for details.)

Please visit AIE at the HGSE Student Research Conference  for a list of presentations they made in February 2007 at the annual HGSE Student Research Conference.