UC Student Earns Ohio Art Education Scholarship

For the third year in a row, a University of Cincinnati master’s student has won the top award in the Ohio Art Education Association Scholarship competition.

The 2012 first-place winner of the OAEA’s scholarship contest is UC art education master’s student Katie Mitalski, 30, a resident of the Cincinnati neighborhood of Clifton. She recently won a $2,000 scholarship based, in part, on an essay answering the question on why she wanted to become an art teacher, specifically focusing on how her teaching will promote critical thinking, creative exploration and personal reflection in students.

According to Mitalski, “The best part of winning the scholarship was the chance to attend the OAEA State Conference held in Cincinnati this past fall. At that conference, I was able to learn about the wonderful art education resources and people at my disposal right here in Cincinnati and throughout Ohio.”

Mitalski, who will graduate from UC in April with a master of arts in visual arts education as well as state licensure in K-12 visual arts, hopes to work in local public schools, helping others to experience the power of the arts as she has in her life.

She explained that she was an uninspired high school student until a teacher handed her a camera when she was enrolled in an introductory photography class. She recalled, “I was suddenly very engaged in strategizing visual concepts and how to produce them, in learning the technical aspects and processes. This one course influenced my whole life and my life choices. I became passionate about learning photography and art, and growing both as a student and a human being through both.”

In her roles as an artist, student and teacher, Mitalski has found that artistic literacy is no less important today than is the ability to read and write. The visual skills and deep looking found within an artistic perspective is increasingly important in the modern environment, helping us to continually find that there is more than one solution to a problem.

Said Mitalski, “It’s why we say a picture is worth a thousand words. The visual arts can guide us in understanding our world and conveying our own ideas and viewpoints.”

• Apply to UC's art education graduate program.