 I really love art because it feels like I'm able to connect to so many different parts of myself. The Summer Institute for Teens is a program that Emily Carr provides to people in high school in which they are able to come in for the summer and gain some experience of what art school is like. It sounded really cool to be able to have like a full month to just sit down and do art because of COVID-19 the program was all online. This is where I might call my art. Even though we are online the instructors really still put their best foot forward. Teaching us these new experiences that they would have in person they still brought it online in just a new way. One of the lessons I learned was taking materials that were already available to me that I probably would have looked over and looking at them in a different way especially since we were working from home. This is where I did all my drawing, painting, sketching. Not everybody was in Vancouver or even Canada so it was really interesting to see art from so many places. Every once in a while people would be like how do you do this thing and somebody always knew. So it was fun to be able to have that interpersonal learning of students too. The Summer Institute for Teens definitely helped me grow my portfolio not only with pieces but actually giving me the experience to do so many works in a rather like condensed period of time. The progress that I've seen in my art was like doubled or tripled even in that time because it was just so intense and so much art. Having an instructor there to review the portfolio is definitely reassuring. Although you might feel alone while crafting your portfolio having that instructor feedback makes it so that you know where to go. It definitely felt like I was learning what art university was gonna be like. I knew so much more and I'd done so much art and it just felt like a really good experience. I'm glad I had the opportunity. Be the change you want to see in the world but be the art you want to see in the world.