Freedom’s Fine Arts Department Helps Students Feel Connected

So many students feel connections to the fine arts whether it’s art, theater or music. Some go on to take fine arts classes and some even pursue it as a career. 

“I think it was just a positive experience, and I wanted to continue with that experience and kind of share that with students,” said Jonathan Schiffler, FHS band teacher.

Both Schiffler and Suhana Ahmed, FHS band students, agreed that band was a means of connecting with other students and peers, as well as supporting them and learning through them.

When asked what the best part of band was, Schiffler said, “Working with the students on a daily basis, they have such great positive attitudes and are committed, hardworking, and passionate, and that’s fun, it’s the most fun part of my job.”

“Hanging out with my friends after school and learning about marching band and what it actually is,” Ahmed said.

However, the feelings of support from FHS are less agreed upon.

Schiffler said that there is a “really strong support from our administration, and from all the teachers within the building too.”

Ahmed disagrees.

“I feel like marching band should be known more and the amount of practice and hard work that gets put into it is not shown enough,” Ahmed said. 

While Schiffler does feel supported, he also agrees that promoting marching band more could be helpful, especially when considering colleges.

When asked what they’d like to see at Freedom concerning music, Ahmed suggested a bigger budget and bettering some equipment, for example uniforms.

“How we’re being shown because the way that we like, perform and dress is how we represent Freedom,” Ahmed said.

Rachel Novi enjoys teaching theater at FHS.

“I really felt more at home, working with theater students and doing theater work,” Novi said.

Like Schiffler and Ahmed, Novi and Abby Luck, cast member of FHS’s “Midsummer Nights Dream,” also agreed that theater was where they felt safe and where their family was.

“I’m definitely here to have fun, and during freshman year, the goal was to just be involved in something, but now it’s turned into family, like these are my best friends,” Luck said.

Luck and Novi both feel supported by Freedom, but also like Schiffler and Ahmed, it could be talked about more.

“I would like to improve advertisements,” Luck said. “I wish that they did more on like social media because they have it like for football, we have like a Freedom Frenzy Instagram and then a Freedom Football Instagram, and then like we have a sports Instagram that takes pictures of the football teams, so I wish that we did more stuff like that.”

Both Novi and Luck suggested a play or a skit that could be performed during advisories. 

“Art is a great way to learn a variety of skills,” said Julie Kang, FHS art teacher. “In Art, we use all sorts of 2D and 3D art supplies. It’s a great form of learning about yourself, how you think, and process things because it’s another form of expression.”

Kang feels as if Art is being prioritized but would like to see more advertisement. 

“In January, students are not really sure what courses that they can take as electives there’s a lot of things offered at Freedom,” Kang said.  “So it’d be cool if we could do some kind of advertisement on what are some of the things that we do in art. It’d be neat to be able to share that information. Maybe we’ll do something for the morning news in the future.”