Grants bring cutting-edge tech to Kearney High’s graphic design program

KEARNEY, Neb. — Kearney High recently received two grants to improve its graphic design program.

The curriculum enabled students to paint a mural on one of the walls at the high school.

“I had been personally rough draft and like I was coming up with a blank and I couldn’t think of anything. And she helped me think about, let’s incorporate Kearney, Nebraska into this mural more, so she sketched up some ideas, and then I brought it into my own Procreate app, and I tweaked it and added colors. And it was really it was really fun to do,” Mariah Kaslon, a sophomore and graphic design student at Kearney High School, said.

“The teacher sponsoring this whole mural, she taught us that we’re going to involve a bunch more people. And I was one of those people helping, so we came into her class trying to figure out what we’re going to do. We all pitched in in trying to figure this out. Maria was the main person that did this, and I’m really happy that she did,” Mia Marfileño, a sophomore at Kearney High School, said.

Kearney High recently received two grants from the Parker Foundation and the Ted Baldwin Advised Fund worth over $18,000. The head of the graphic design program said these funds will help improve their curriculum and set students up for success in the future.

“Right now, our curriculum really focuses on using the Adobe Creative Suite, and the grant specifically is going to give us the opportunity to incorporate iPads and specifically Procreate. Procreate is considered kind of the leading when it comes to digital illustration, and we’ve had a lot of students who, like Maria, have her own iPad and Procreate there. The students are really interested in learning it. And since it is, you know, a real-world application, we really wanted to make sure we incorporated it into the curriculum and gave students that opportunity,” Charlotte Dvorak, an art and graphic design teacher at Kearney High, said.

The head of the program says it’s great experience for students and creates a stronger community for the whole school.

“Our graphic design program, specifically, we do have some clients that we work with, so it helps them learn professionalism and communication, you know, mostly through email. But they do have meetings with clients sometimes. So we do focus on the professionalism aspect. But we also, just being creative and visually communicating is a big part of it,” Dvorak said.

“My teachers have really pushed me to think about my future and think about how the business side of art could be put into my own work, and thinking about, pressure from like, the seller or like the person that’s hiring you, so I think about that when I’m creating and not just taking my own creative liberties, but putting it into the perspective of if someone wanted me to do it for them,” Kaslon said.

“I learned that teamwork really can change the events of a project, especially if you’re the leader,” Marfileño said.

Kearney High School told NTV they will be receiving new graphic design equipment by the start of next semester.