(newswire.net–July 4, 2013) Guelph, ON–
US high school graduates are given a voice to celebrate their independence over the results of government arts education funding cuts this July fourth in a new video contest for art students.
Teens in the public education sector are disadvantaged for getting accepted into the most competitive art and design colleges due to art education cuts in the primary and secondary school boards. Only well-off US citizens can afford the private training needed to get into the best arts colleges. Despite the unfair disadvantage that public school kids are left with, some of the most talented and passionate ones still prevail.
Students now have a platform share their tales of triumph in the Beating the Odds Stories of Student Success Video Blog Contest hosted by the new art portfolio coaching company PortPrep. They chose Independence Day as the deadline to highlight the fierce spirit of independence of these determined young people.
The company aims to bring the spot light onto the need for more arts funding via its contest for students who have overcome the adversity of funding cuts and have managed to beat the odds and get accepted to the top universities. The contest results will reveal what types of students are getting accepted to the best arts colleges. The winner of the contest receives the benefit of a free college preparation summer course to help offset the minimal arts training that US art students are getting.
In an article entitled “Education Budget Cuts for Art Education” the University of Michigan said, “The attempt at cutting funding for arts education stems all the way from the federal level…administrators…need to put financial backing into subjects that are tested in nation-wide assessments in order to get more federal funding…art is pushed aside …in favor of … the core education classes. Art teachers are faced with being overwhelmed by the number of classes and schools in which they have to teach and do not have the supplies needed to give quality instruction.”
Some universities avoid entrance portfolios in favor of sophomore assessments so that they teach the missing foundations in the freshman year.
But the schools with the very best reputations in the arts that boast applications numbering from 2000-5000 per year, with a mere 50-200 spots to fill are truly forced to use entrance portfolios to evaluate the applicant’s worthiness to their highly challenging curricula.
The gap in secondary arts education is filled by independent portfolio coaches that teach students how to prepare art portfolios to gain them access to best colleges, like Karen Kesteloot at PortPrep.
http://portprep.com/wp/2013/06/karen-kesteloot-beating-the-odds-video-blog-contest/
http://portprep.com/Instructor.htm
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.burba/education_budgets_for_art_education