About Our Students

 

What kind of student does the MAIAI program attract? 

Teachers of all grades and content areas who wish to be leaders in arts integration and innovators in arts infusion.

  • You are a teacher who wishes to expand your knowledge and deepen your current practice by learning how to apply arts integration.
  • You recognize the potential for enriched, differentiated learning and wish to become skilled at adapting curriculum to the needs of your students.
  • You appreciate the ways in which arts integration enhances student enjoyment and engagement with learning, which in turn, enhances teacher job satisfaction.
  • You want to become more adept at collaborating across academic areas and artistic disciplines with your fellow teachers and teaching artists to create dynamic classrooms.
  • You aspire to become an informed teacher leader and/or administrator who advocates for arts integration and infusion.
  • You are excited and curious to learn about arts infusion, which is to say, arts practices in sectors outside of the school setting, to fuel your teaching with new ideas and/or expand your career horizons.

Innovators, leaders and self-starters with an arts and/or education background and an entrepreneurial spirit.

  • You see the potential for arts infusion in a range of settings in and beyond schools and you want to learn how to bring those skills to bear.
  • You desire dedicated time and space to study and apply new knowledge in a dynamic learning environment focused on the intersecting practices of arts and education.
  • You are invested in carving your own path and putting your creative problem-solving skills to work in new ways in the ever-expanding field of arts infusion.
  • You are excited about learning in an interdisciplinary setting with similarly invested peers and faculty who have a wide range of educational and artistic backgrounds.
Leshe Anderson

Student Profile - Leshe Anderson

Leshe Anderson is a professional actor, dancer, Zumba instructor, and choreographer in the Maryland and DC area. She holds a B.F.A degree in Dance from Savannah State. She is currently a graduate student in the M.A. program in Interdisciplinary Arts Infusion, researching and creating new ways to build our education system by deepening students understanding and applicable knowledge of common core subjects through the arts. Anderson has also worked with inner city youth in DC through the Joy of Motion Dance Center as a dance instructor who bring cultures and geography alive through dance, showing at-risk youth the world outside of their city.

Lauren Rock

Student Profile - Lauren Rock

Lauren Rock recently completed her third year teaching art and music at the International baccalaureate York Academy Regional Charter School in York, PA. Rock is currently enrolled in the MAIAI program and believes the courses have given her authentic dance, theatre, music, and visual art tools to incorporate into her daily lessons. Rock combines the arts with core content and the kids love it. "My students and I are enjoying how I have adjusted my teaching style. Life is good."

Jackie

Student Profile -  Jackie Martin '02

Jackie Martin graduated with honors from TU in 2002. Now in her ninth year at Laurel High in Prince George’s County Public Schools, she is the creator, instructor and choreographer of the Laurel High School Dance Program/Company. She is also the CEO and Artistic Director of LOUD Dance Collective and a performing artist with Light Switch Dance Theatre. She studied ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, modern, and lyrical dance, beginning at age 4. As a child and young adult she performed with local collectives and competed in state and national dance competitions.

Kristin

Student Profile - Kristen Muscaro

Kristen Muscaro is in her second year teaching K-5th grade Visual Art at Edgewood Elementary School in Harford County, MD. She received her B.F.A. in Ceramics and K-12 Art Education teacher certification from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Muscaro's goal is to share her passion for the arts with her students and give them the creative problem solving skills necessary for a rich and prosperous future. "When not teaching or making art, I enjoy hiking, reading, traveling, and spending time with friends and family."