TOWER- An unplanned semester off from college has given Vermilion Country School graduate Jules Schmidt the chance to help a younger generation of charter school students learn about art, create art, and see what career possibilities an art education can give.
Schmidt is a sophomore at SUNY-Fredonia in upstate New York. She graduated from both VCS and Vermilion Community College in 2020, earning her AA degree through the post-secondary enrollment option.
“My classes at Fredonia remind me a lot of my time at VCS,” she said. “There are a lot of professors and other staff there to help the students with their projects.” Schmidt is majoring in animation illustration, with a minor in creative writing. She is currently looking into internship opportunities with larger animation companies.
Schmidt contracted COVID-19 at college last March, and had to take medical leave as she struggled with effects from “long COVID,” so she moved back to her home in Ely.
“Now I’ve recovered,” she said. “And I wanted to work.”
She is volunteering three days a week at VCS, introducing students to art theory and appreciation, helping build the students’ vocabulary and awareness of art techniques, as well as leading students on hands-on art projects. She is also writing curriculum for other teachers to use to continue the students’ art education once she is back in college this winter.
The week before Christmas she was teaching students how to critique a work of art, using one of her own not-quite-finished pieces. Step-by-step she set up the framework and vocabulary to talk about a piece of art, regardless of whether or not someone likes the art itself.
Afterwards, she was guiding students who were working in small groups creating three-dimensional sculptures out of cardboard. Glue guns, duct tape, and cutters were all in use as students followed the plans they had each sketched out. Students’ projects included a small village, a three-dimensional cat tower, a doghouse, and a fish sculpture. Once the cardboard creations are finished, they will be either painted or covered with paper-mache.
“I’m really having fun,” she said. “I like the students. They respond so well to me, I think, because I am much younger than their other teachers.”
Schmidt’s mother, Karin Schmidt, is the language arts teacher at VCS, but also teaches music, art, and theater throughout the school year. Jules said she hears from her mother that the students do enjoy working with her.
“It is a little bit weird being back here,” she said. “But I really like watching the students work on their own projects.”
Jules will have spent a total of six weeks volunteering before she returns to her classes in New York in late January.
Jules said her art classes at VCC gave her the confidence she needed to pursue a degree in the creative arts. “I told my drawing teacher Chris Koivisto I was interested in doing hand-drawn animation and he told me I could do that.”
In college she has taken foundational art department classes. Her favorite so far has been the digital foundations class, where she learned to use Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, and projects included creating emojis and stickers. “I picked it up really quickly,” she said. This spring she is taking a full load as an honors student, including drawing and illustration classes, art history, fiction writing, and an honors class on the local natural environment.
“I was definitely well prepared to start this program,” she said. “The project-based learning at VCS taught me to initiate my own learning and be self-motivated. And the PSEO experience at VCC helped me learn how college worked, while I was still in the comfort of my own home.”
Jules said her current college experience really does remind her of her time at the charter school. She will be back home in Ely this summer, working as a guide at Northern Tier High Adventure Camp.

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