Ohio Northern University Alumna Katelyn Amendolara (BFA/art education ’11) recently traveled to the Middle East to study culture and art as part of curriculum development for the Ohio Department of Education.

Katelyn is currently an art teacher at the Jackson-Milton high school located in North Jackson, Ohio. She teaches 7 through 12 grades and organizes an adult art program throughout the year. Katelyn also organizes an after school art club for students interested in furthering their education. She was awarded an “influential teacher award” in Mahoning county in 2015.

Beyond Jackson-Milton, Katelyn is a freelance artist and serves as a volunteer teacher for the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown. Her work has been accepted to the San Francisco Art Institute’s Diego Rivera Gallery and other juried exhibitions. She also served as vice president of the Western Mahoning Kiwanis Club and organized a Blue Jay 5K race on behalf of Jackson-Milton Key Club.

As a student at Ohio Northern, Katelyn was a Fulbright Scholar in 2010, studying the emerging democracy in South Africa and evaluating the country’s educational system.

She eventually designed a K-12 visual arts unit for the US Department of Education. She also was involved with AIGA|The Professional Association for Design, Kappa Pi art honorary, and studied at the Studio Art Center International (SACI) in Florence, Italy.

In 2009, she presented a paper at Heidelberg College’s 16th annual Minds at Work Student Research Conference. She also won several student awards in the art & design department including the A&D Service Award, the Outstanding Art Education Senior Award and several juried art show awards.