(2021) Biggest Takeaway by Noah Spottek

 By: Noah Spottek (Artists Working in Education) 

When I first joined AWE I was scared about communication and getting to know different people. As a person who struggles with communication and anxiety it’s not always the best, but I’ve gotten to know a few of the other interns and have made great connections with them and even people out of the program. I feel like joining this internship has helped me move out of my own comfort zone in different ways. What helped a lot was how understanding everyone was, not just the interns but the supervisors as well. They were the most understanding and flexible, and tried to help you get to where you need to be, and if you weren’t able to get there they would be understanding and sometimes have you do something else another time. Something else that helped me as well was, I guess trying to put myself out there more. I know it can be scary and even hard sometimes but the only way for you to grow is to learn how to communicate with others and a step to doing this is by putting yourself out there. It was most definitely hard for me to do that because when I talk to people I get nervous and anxious, but to be able to build connections you need to step up and try to talk to people. Which is one thing I learned how to do when being a part of this program. I still can be nervous or anxious sometimes and that’s okay, I just need to communicate where I am at or just keep pushing through it. Now I know I am capable of getting to know different people and communicating with others and I feel less worried and more confident in talking to other people. 

    

I feel like my painting skills have gotten somewhat better while being in this internship. During this internship we have been able to go to many different places and have been able to paint murals and even use spray chalk, but the thing we used most was the paints. I had a lot of fun painting, definitely with the other interns and having fun topics to talk about while we worked on the murals. I got a lot of advice while working on these projects, and even to the point where I have seen an improvement in my own working skills and sometimes feel even more confident while working with paints.