I am an artist from Altavista, Virginia, aspiring to be an art educator. I realized my love for working with children started when I began teaching swim lessons at my local YMCA. I love to learn and I love knowing that I can help and influence others. 

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          Growing, I quickly found my biggest passion to be artmaking. I didn't get to explore that passion until my freshman year of high school, but was constantly creating. Somewhere along the way, I realized I could spread my knowledge and love of art through helping others. My senior year of high school, my art class collaborated with the exceptional learning class. I noticed one of the students was replicating one of my drawings I had intended to submit for my VCUart portfolio. I stood and watched him for quite some time, interested in his approach to drawing the image. It was and is one of my favorite things to have witnessed and is what I give credit to for pursuing a career as an educator. There is an old problematic phrase "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." I adopted the coined phrase "Those who can, do. Those who can do more, teach."