DIG Dr. Martin Rayala Grant Awards | 2019-2020
DIG is thrilled to announce the 2019-2020 Dr. Martin Rayala Grant Grantees! The DIG Grant Initiative was created in honor of the outstanding work of Dr. Rayala, the co-founder of our interest group. In recognition of these dedicated art and design educators, Sue and Andrew are ready to share how they have developed, implemented, and documented their design-thinking challenges. Sue and Andrew documented: 1) insightful reflections on the integration of their design-thinking challenges; 2) instructional best practice methods that led to postive impact on student learning, the DIG Community, as well as within NAEA members at large; and 3) the alignment of challenge objectives and learning targets with the National Visual Arts Standards. | DIG Grantee, Susan Cowles Sue Cowles-Dumitru is an art and design teacher at Westlake Middle School in Westchester County NY. Sue has a background in design, fine arts, and photography/holography. She was awarded the Shearwater Prize for fine art holography and was an artist pioneer in the medium. Susan exhibits her work nationally and internationally and teaches children about art and design. In addition, Susan is the Coordinator of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years program at her school where she works as a teacher and coach. Ms. Cowles-Dumitru’s education in the UK includes a Foundation Art Certificate; B.A. (Hons) in Three Dimensional Design; M.A. from the Royal College of Art in London; and an Ed.D. from the Teachers College at Columbia University.
DIG Grantee, Andrew Bencsko Andrew Bencsko has been an art and design educator at the High School of Art and Design, a New York City Career and Technical Education (CTE) commercial arts school, for the past eleven years. After receiving his master’s at the School of Visual Arts, he taught a graduate course on the integration of Technology in K-12 Art Education for seven years. Andrew has been a painter for 30 years; worked in the design industry for over 13 years; and was honored with the United Federation of Teachers’ CTE Teacher of the Year Award in 2013. Bencsko co-facilitated NAEA’s Summer Studio Design Thinking Institute in 2018; served as a team member of a Design Thinking Action Research project. Mr. Bencsko has a B.F.A. in Illustration and M.A. in Art Teacher Education from the School of Visual Arts.
|