A Mentor’s Experience…Meet Mich
The following post has been written by IOB Mentor and Guest Author, Mich Patrick Dillon (pictured on the left of the above image with IOB student, Aaron).
To address high unemployment among neurodiverse populations, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) have partnered with the non-profit, Islands of Brilliance (IOB), to create the Autism Brilliance Lab for Entrepreneurship (ABLE). This research has been generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
What’s it like to mentor for IOB? You might be surprised.
My name is Mich. As a first-year graduate student in the MFA program at UWM, I’ve been offered the opportunity to work with Islands of Brilliance (IOB) in conducting research with creative learning strategies. To get to know how IOB works and observe the learning process firsthand, I became a Mentor for their Foundation program this past summer. My hope was to teach these students new skills. It turns out, they taught me some things, too.
As mentors, we are paired one-on-one with neurodiverse students to provide digital software techniques to help them expand their creative expression, skills, and hopefully build their confidence. What is different about IOB than traditional learning environments is that they use art and creative technologies to facilitate an open environment that encourages all aspects of the learning process. Students are prompted to create. There are no grades. Mentors work with students at the skill and interest level that they are — helping them to establish workflows and teaching skills as needed.
Establishing Trust Helps Develop an Environment for Exploration
Throughout the sessions, I worked with a handful of students. Christian, Milo, Mikey, Aaron, Cristo, and Rich. A few of the students were very quiet individuals but were highly attentive, I could tell immediately, that like me, there needs to be an established trust between the two of us for there to be a dialogue.
To facilitate the workshop effectively, I knew I needed to demonstrate a good workflow and mindset while creating in photoshop alongside the students. However, I also needed to be aware of and maintain boundaries as well. This varied from student to student, but I approached each student with the same respect and openness.
I gave as much space to them as possible but looked for clues that they wanted to interact. I noticed that when we talked about a topic the student knew and liked, it took the pressure away from the conversation. I could center the conversation around them -- what they like -- and work on how we could apply that to what we make. That way we could develop trust through points of commonality.
New student = A new relationship and new ways of working
On the first day of collaborating with Milo, he seemed unsure of me at first. He was very curious and eager to get involved but unsure of the environment. When he first sat down next to me, he wouldn’t face me at all– he would only talk to his dad. Conversation was challenging at first as there wasn’t much back and forth. If I asked a direct question, it would usually garner a response of, "I don’t know." Or if my questions weren’t specific enough, he would simply check out. But once we found out we had a shared interest in Nintendo, specifically Kirby, everything relaxed, dramatically. He started to shift away from his father a bit and would engage with me, not directly but it was big progress.
Now that we had something in common to talk about, we were able to create. We started off by picking an environment for his digital collage. At first, I completely left the ideation up to him, but that open-endedness became overwhelming. Then I thought of specific prompts to help get him started but also left things open enough for Milo to use his existing knowledge on the topic.
Alas, this didn’t work at first either. It was still too open ended for him and he would disengage from the conversation. This first day was challenging and took a couple pushes from his father to get him to stay engaged. However, on the second day, Milo sat down and was almost facing me! He also had much more enthusiasm. I could see growth in how he approached the situation. Once he felt comfortable talking to me, he was able to pick up the workflows and even learned a few new digital tools in Photoshop.
It was rewarding to witness great growth during our time together.
A returning student learns new skills.
Mich working with IOB student Cristian.
Cristian is an enthusiastic fan of the Brewers, Bucks, and Packers and previously worked with another mentor to design a poster based in Lambeau Field. Sharing this interest with him gave us something in common. I found that Cristian liked a consistent routine and structure when creating. Cristian was a returning IOB student, so he had already established a prior workflow which made it easier to build from.
He also had a specific idea of what he wanted to make. Cristian has a knack for detail which allowed him to create on a small scale with great precision. He is a great listener and has an openness to learning that kept him very level-headed while working in photoshop, something I have a difficult time maintaining.
Cristian's prior IOB experience also helped set the structure for the poster during the first session. I used the same foundational poster process I used with all the other students but was able to expand upon his knowledge as well. During the first day, we added to his workflow of select and mask by also removing an image from the background. Photoshop had made some updates from the last time he worked in the program, so he was able to learn something new.
I found that Cristian liked a consistent routine and structure when creating. Working with Cristian was very insightful.
Unleashing Creativity
The process of learning something new is difficult for anyone. One of the things that makes Islands of Brilliance such a space of learning and positivity is that we help create a workflow that becomes a space for exploration not a bunch of tasks driven by the need to complete something. As a mentor, we get to be the smiling hand that helps move the student forward by showing them what they CAN do, not what they are SUPPOSED to do. This helps it stick in the students’ memory and can give them the confidence to try it again, even when learning new software.
Cristo was a little older than the other students I had worked with previously. While he came to the workshop with a strong digital art knowledge base, he wanted to learn even more.
On the first day, he showed me his extensive archive of different superhero characters he had created on his iPad. Superheroes became an easy conversation starter that engaged the two of us and prompted me to ask Cristo to create an image with either of his two favorite heroes (Batman in the DC universe and Spiderman for Marvel) as the focal point.
He seemed enthusiastic to work with that prompt but wasn’t sure exactly how to start the workflow because he wasn’t familiar with Photoshop’s desktop version. We started with a background that we cropped to his liking. Then added and edited characters into the background to create the scene. Cristo had used a different brand of digital editing software before, so he picked up the workflow for Photoshop instantly.
From there, Cristo made one or two posters each day! Some students choose to work on one poster a week to really add detail while other students make a new poster each day. Cristo displayed a great deal of detail in each poster and incorporated techniques he learned into his workflow.
Because Cristo completed posters so quickly and displayed a deep understanding of Photoshop tools, we moved into animating keyframes in the timeline section of the program. In short order, he edited and manipulated preexisting images creating an animation of Batman. He also created a Spiderman poster with drop shadows and inner/outer glow to smart objects to create a real sense of depth and prominence in the poster. It looked like it could have been in a movie ad campaign.
Mentors learn, too.
Overall working with the students was something for which I am grateful. Each of the students displayed a different perspective on creating which was very eye-opening as a mentor and helped me get a better understanding of the software, workflows as well as how to describe processes and how to troubleshoot. The students learned fundamental and advanced skills within photoshop so quickly and have such an inclination for the process. It surprised me that they did such an exceptional job at remaining level-headed through the process of learning and creating – something that most artists have trouble maintaining. They inspired me to keep learning and exploring without hesitation.
Best of all, you get to genuinely help someone cultivate creativity through positive interactions with the students. You’ll make connections with the students and the rest of the IOC staff. Everyone is open, honest and wants to help. It’s a breath of fresh air.