Khyla Bender is a junior working towards a bachelor of art while majoring in Art Education at West Texas A&M University. Bender is from Amarillo and is working to engage more people in the beauty of art.
Bender plans to pursue a career allowing her to work with several of her interests.
“I am wanting to teach art at either a middle school or a high school,” Bender said.
After an experience in high school, Bender realized what career she wanted to work in.
“I’ve always been surrounded by art as a kid; My dad’s an architect, and my mom’s an English teacher, so I’ve had both sides of the art world,” Bender said. “During sophomore year of high school, I was in art class, and I realized that was my calling because I was actually helping the teacher out by teaching other kids how to do certain things in art. So after that, I knew I wanted to become an art teacher.”
Bender plans to support students by implementing relaxing strategies.
“My career is going to help others,” Bender said. “In a student’s busy day, I want to be the one class that is going to let the kids have a calming atmosphere, kind of little brain break where they can just create anything they want without having to worry about certain rules for it.”
Teaching secondary schools interested Bender so that she could teach students a variety of artistic endeavors.
“I’m drawn to teaching either the middle school or the high school area since the students would be of an age where they could really explore different artistic techniques,” Bender said. “You can really get to explore the elements of art, and you could get them into different competitions. In elementary school, you’re just teaching them how to draw circles and stuff, which is fun, but I want to try to help the kids get into competitions.”
One thing Bender enjoys about majoring in Art Education is the opportunity to learn something new every day.
“I would say my favorite thing about my major is learning new and different techniques,” Bender said. “Since I’m an art major, I’m getting into all these art classes, and I’m learning stuff that I’d never be able to learn if I wasn’t an art major.”
Bender chose to go to WT for a couple of reasons.
“Once I graduated from Amarillo College, I transferred over to WT because of my mom; She actually graduated from WT about 25 years ago,” Bender said. “I also found out that WT has one of the best education pathways for someone pursuing a career in teaching.”
Since coming to WT, Bender has been given several opportunities that help her develop her art as well as prepare for her future goals.
“WT has given me a lot of opportunities,” Bender said. “I’m getting a lot of scholarship opportunities, and I’m able to enter different art kinds of exhibit competitions such as the AC + WT Art Exhibition. Later on in the semester, I can submit a couple of pieces and see if any of them make it. If they do, I can possibly get paid for it.”
A part of WT that Bender favors is the support her professors provide.
“I’d say my favorite thing about WT is how well the teachers like to work with the students to get their degrees,” Bender said. “Not that many people want to work in art education, and my art teachers have told me that if I’m not able to find a job by myself, they would be willing to help me find a job in Amarillo so I can stay in my hometown.”
Aside from academics, Bender spends her free time working on art projects or indulging in literature.
“Outside of school, I love to practice more art stuff,” Bender said. “I’m always creating something like I love using oven-baked clay and creating little sculptures out of it. So, I am usually reading or doing something art-related.”
Bender believes everyone should appreciate the art industry.
“Don’t take art for granted because art is everywhere, even if you don’t think it is,” Bender said. “It’s like, one of my favorite sayings, ‘You can’t spell Earth without art.’ ‘Art’ is in the middle of ‘Earth,’ and that’s the only reason why we’re able to really get stuff done in the world.”
For anyone interested in pursuing a career with an art or education degree, Bender offers further advice:
“Anyone who’s wanting to look into art degrees in the future, like if they want to do education, I’d say, go for it,” Bender said. “We need more art teachers because our teachers are the ones who help kids get really creative in school.”
