WMCAT is “that one place” where Nicole can pursue art and make big plans
Nicole is an enthusiastic, energetic senior in high school. While she does well in school, she is frustrated by the lack of after school activities or clubs at her high school. Programs like art have been cut from Grand Rapids schools over the years and there is no extra funding for extracurricular programs in arts or academics. In 10th grade she discovered the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology, taking her first class in toy making.
“I love WMCAT,” she said. “It is the only consistent after school program I have. We don’t have art in school, but I do have this one place.”
Through WMCAT Nicole has taken classes in drawing, photography and fabric arts. She has visited colleges, experienced cultural events in Grand Rapids, attended the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp through a scholarship program, and worked as a paid apprentice on an award-winning public art project.
“The teachers here are like family,” she said. “They are really motivating. They boost me up. They have helped me develop myself as a grown up.”
In part through her experiences at WMCAT and her positive relationships with the instructors, Nicole is working toward big goals for her future. She will be attending Michigan State University in the fall, becoming the first person in her family to attend a four-year university and the first of four children to live more than an hour from home. She plans to join the Peace Corps and work toward a dream of helping children oversees through the application of technology.
Thank you for providing the funds for a semester of after school art and technology classes so that talented teens like Nicole can do great things in our world.