Art Education Students and Alumni Spotlights

Yan Jiang (contact me)
MAT in Art Education, 2016

My name is Yan Jiang. I was born and grew up in China. I am an art teacher focusing on K-5, and am also a practicing artist. I graduated from China Academy of Art with a Bachelor of Architecture and Environment design. I worked as an art teacher for three years with a focus on K-12 in Shanghai. In the summer of 2015, I began to continue my professional growth by studying at Tufts University / School of Museum of Fine Arts to receive a Master of Arts in Teaching specializing in Art Education. I finished a full-year internship in Newton Peirce Elementary school. After graduating, I worked at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and currently, I am an art program director at SUGART studio in Lexington. My website is yanartedu.com.

Lauren Roeser (contact me)
MAT in Art Education, 2016

As a 2016 graduate of the Tufts Art Education program, I had the confidence in my ability to get kids of all ages and abilities excited about making art, even in my first year as a young educator. I currently teach at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts where my goal is to inspire my students through both the study of Art History and Contemporary Art. My hope is that they are able to express themselves freely and use their own voices to create art that helps them make meaning of their world. We spend just as much time in my classroom talking about art as we do making it, which I believe leads to an appreciation for the artistic process as well as a respect for the ideas of others - two things the Tufts MAT program exemplifies in its instruction.

Karl Stephan (contact me)
MAT in Art Education, 2015

I teach art and art history to teens and adults in my Cambridge studio, at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and elsewhere. I work with school, university and community art programs, and offer portfolio planning and professional guidance for young artists. I have curated several large art exhibits, most recently a twenty-year retrospective of my own work. I consulted in the award-winning street art documentary, "City as Canvas," and continue to work with Tufts SMFA faculty and MAT students in art education.

Sepi Golestani (contact me)
MAT in Art Education, 2014

Sepi Golestani graduated from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA) with a Master of Arts in Teaching in 2014. Sepi is a certified art teacher with more than 15-year background in painting in a variety of media, especially watercolor. She has taught children's studio art classes and adult watercolor classes at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston since 2013. Sepi currently teaches Visual Arts to elementary school students with Natick Public Schools in Massachusetts and Adult Watercolor courses at Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Saint Demetrios Church in Weston.

Erica Frisk
MAT in Art Education, 2013
Photography and Visual Arts teacher at Andover High School, Andover, MA

Attending the Art Education program at Tufts University in affiliation with SMFA was truly a life changing experience. I could not have asked for a better program that seamlessly blended visual art, student centered learning, social justice oriented pedagogy and real world, hands on experience. The knowledge and training imparted in this program has broadened my perspective on arts education and assisted me in creating thoughtful and engaging curriculum that allows my students to flourish as artists. View Erica's video bio.

Katie Sussman (contact me)
MAT in Art Education, 2013
Art Teacher, Grades 9-12, Rocky Hill Country Day School, Greenwich, RI

The MAT program at Tufts/SMFA prepared me as much as humanly possible for the interviewing process and my first year of teaching. I feel lucky to have found a program that strengthened my ability to incorporate student-centered learning, interdisciplinary connections, and social justice into my curricula. I now feel confident in my implementation of rich, meaningful lessons that challenge my students technically and creatively. View Katie's video bio.