Posts Tagged "Faculty"
Photography Teacher Freelances at Women’s Final Four
April 09, 2024
First-year art teacher Carolina Kane keeps quite busy with her day job. But if that’s not enough, she also has her own photography business – Carolina Kane Photography.
A quick glance at her business’ website, you see senior and family portraits, weddings, fine art, editorial work, and much more. What you don’t see much of is sports.
That all changed this past weekend when she worked freelance for Cleveland Magazine and shot more than 2,000 pictures at the NCAA Women’s Division I Final Four at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. Her photos can be found on the Cleveland Magazine website.
“It was so intense and filled with anxiety,” Carolina said. “There were so many people there and so much media. But it was such a cool experience.”
She was there for all three games – the national semifinals on Friday night and the championship game on Sunday – and moved all over the fieldhouse getting as many shots as possible. She said she was there at 5p on Friday (the first game started at 7p) and didn’t leave until about 1a on Saturday.
“It was a long day,” she said. “Two games to shoot, and then I was in the media room editing until early Saturday morning. But then all day Saturday editing some more.”
She worked with the writer from Cleveland Magazine, getting shots to accompany his news stories. Not only were her photos used in his articles, but she would work between games and at halftimes to send images to her art director for more formal social media posts.
She had a floor pass for Saturday night’s second semifinal between Connecticut and Iowa, headlined by two of the sport’s biggest stars, Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark, and was positioned right on the baseline.
“It was intense,” she said. “There I was in between ESPN’s still photographer and the Associated Press. And, on top of that, it was a great game.
“My dad kept letting me know every time he saw me on TV.”
After that late-night Friday and all-day editing Saturday, it was time to go back on Sunday for the championship game between Iowa and South Carolina. South Carolina won the national championship, 87-75.
She moved around the fieldhouse until it was time for the Gamecocks' trophy presentation when she joined the rest of the media on the floor right in front of the quickly constructed stage.
“It was such a great experience,” Carolina said. “I sent (Cleveland Magazine) 634 edited photos. It was a long weekend, but so worth it.
“I was so proud to be photographing such a high-profile women’s game. It was incredible that so many people were there to support women in sports. The energy in the room was electric and every basket was met with a roar from the crowd. I felt proud to be a woman photographer, supporting other great women, and showcasing our great city.
“And it gave me some ‘street-cred’ with the kids. A lot of them have come in today already telling me how cool it was that I got to be there for it.”
photo courtesy of Cleveland Magazine
Getting to Know ... Fr. Andy Gonzalez, Lake Catholic Chaplain
September 28, 2023
This is the second in a series introducing new members of the Lake Catholic community.
When Bishop Edward Malesic celebrated the school year-opening mass at Lake Catholic, he made two important announcements – one that received loud cheers and applause from the students and one that will have a more lasting impact on the students.
As he typically does when he visits, Bishop Malesic let everyone know that the students, faculty and staff can have a day off of school/work on him. Mr. McKrill, after conferring with members of the senior class, announced that day would be October 16.
That day will come and go though.
But it was the second announcement that will have a more lasting effect on the students. Bishop Malesic made public that Fr. Andy Gonzalez, the newly appointed vicar at St. Gabriel Parish, will also serve as chaplain here at Lake Catholic.
“Once my move was announced to St. Gabriel Parish (from Holy Family in Stow, Ohio), I was asked if I would be willing to be a regular presence here at Lake Catholic,” Fr. Andy said. “It’s very open-ended from my perspective. My main mission is to offer mass, but I could be present in other ways too.”
Fr. Andy has already started celebrating mass every Thursday morning at 715a in the school’s chapel. He might also be spotted in a few theology classes or the Campus Ministry office.
“I have two older brothers and 10 nieces and nephews, who range from preschool to college,” he said. “Those experiences have helped me with my work with kids and teens. I’m comfortable with them and I hope they’re comfortable with me.”
Working with kids and teens, or even being a priest for that matter, is a far stretch from where Fr. Andy was 10-15 years ago.
After graduating from Olmsted Falls High School in 2002, Fr. Andy (or just Andy at that point) enrolled at Baldwin Wallace University, where we would earn his undergraduate degree in computer information systems.
He even had a job after college at a software company in Westlake. He worked in that industry for six years. But in 2013, he made the decision to leave that world and entered St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology.
“I was just in a job and a place in my life where I knew I needed a change,” he said.
So there he was, a 29-year-old entering the seminary to become a priest.
“Moving from one point in my life to this one wasn’t easy,” he said. “There was a lot of formation. I created a lot of strong relationships. They taught me how to be a priest.”
While in the seminary, he did help support Campus Ministry at St. Edward for a semester. And he said he sees similarities between that brief time and how he views his role here at Lake Catholic.
“I can be on the ground, in the field, wherever there are needs,” he said. “How can I help have Jesus enter these halls.”
He’ll continue to have his “normal priestly duties” – saying mass, confession, etc. – at St. Gabes. But both there and here, he said he’s going to continue to find his way and see how he best fits.
“There’s something oddly freeing about it, about being new,” he said. “There’s no hardened fast rules or expectations. I can just go where my attention needs to be.”
Quick Hits
- Enjoys exercising and working out. Enjoys the outdoors. He is a part of the Holy Hiking club at St. Gabes.
- Loves reading. He’s currently in the middle of five different books, including working through Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Getting to Know ... Carolina Kane, Art Teacher
September 20, 2023
This is the first in a series introducing new members of the Lake Catholic community.
Carolina Kane has always wanted to be an art teacher, just like her mom, except for those rebellious teenage years, when no teenager wants anything to do with his/her parents.
“I rebelled when I was a teenager, but other than that, this is what I’ve always wanted to do,” said Lake Catholic’s first-year art teacher.
Although this is Ms. Kane’s first year in a full-time high school classroom setting, she’s been around the art world for almost her entire life.
“I’ve been going to the Ohio Governor’s Youth Art Exhibition and the Lake/Geauga Art Show since I was five years old,” she said. “I would go with my mom all over to different shows. So I’ve been around the art world for a long time.”
Her mom, Mrs. Michelle Kane, has been teaching art classes at Mentor High School for more than 30 years and has numerous awards, most recently the 2023 Cleveland Institute of Art Excellence in Teaching Award.
Lake Catholic’s Ms. Kane has her own impressive resume.
She’s been a photographer for Cleveland Magazine since the summer of 2017 and John Carroll University since the summer of 2018. She also started her own photography business – Carolina Kane Photography - in 2017.
Once she got her degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2019, Ms. Kane was hired for a full-time marketing position at John Carroll in the Center for Service-Learning and Social Action.
In November of 2020, she left John Carroll to work as an assistant director at District Gallery, an art gallery in Shaker Heights. Soon after, the director left to pursue her own art career, and Ms. Kane stepped into the director role, where she learned the business side of the art world.
“I had to learn Quickbooks pretty quickly,” she said. “I knew almost nothing about that side of things, but I’ve learned a lot since then.”
While serving as the director of the gallery, she doubled the square footage and wall space of it.
But still she wanted more.
“I’ve lived off my artwork. I’ve been the gallery director of a studio. But the passion to share with others is what I was really missing,” she said.
So in February of this year, Ms. Kane took her Art content exam and began Ohio's Intensive Pedagogical Training Institute (IPTI) through Ohio State University – an intense 16-week program that’s essentially an expediated path for working and experienced professionals to become a certified teacher. She did her field work from mid-March through May in the Mentor Schools.
“I love the challenge high school art education and students present” she said. “I want to connect with them through their artwork – whether it’s incorporating food, shoes, sports. Whatever works. I want them to play to their passions. I want them to be vulnerable and eventually make them passionate about art.”
In her first year at Lake Catholic, Ms. Kane is teaching Art Foundations, Drawing, and Digital Photography and Design.
“I’ve learned in a really short time that the students really do care about what they’re doing,” she said. “They’re coming in whenever they have study hall or even lunch and working on their projects. In just a few short weeks, I’ve noticed a lot of kids evolving already.”
It’s not even been a month since the school year started, and since Ms. Kane’s high school teaching career began, but she’s ready to challenge her classes and move them quickly forward.
"Mrs. Wolf and I make a great team as Lake Catholic's art department,” she said. “I know that I can't do everything yet in my first year, as I have much to learn about Lake Catholic and our students still. But these students, this department, and this school has a ton of potential for incredible collabs, projects, and greatness. I am so excited for what lies ahead."
Quick Hits
Family: Mom, Dad and brother, Camden. Mom is an art teacher. Dad is an accountant. Camden is a senior at Hiram majoring in business and accounting.
Pets: Two cats – Ronald and Mouse
Hobbies: Softball – plays in Mentor Coed Rec League. “I played in six games over Labor Day weekend!”
Music – “I love all types of music.” She likes Taylor Swift, The Bleachers, Lord Huron, just to name a few. “I like what (German philosopher Arthur) Schopenhauer said about music … ‘Music is different from all other artforms because it alone is an expression of itself rather than something else. Notes and melodies, unlike phrases and colors, do not try to represent anything but can instead be appreciated simply for what they are.’”
Movies – “Movies are another form of art I really appreciate. I love to examine set design and pick-a-part complex storylines in movies, but the last movie I saw was Barbie at the drive-in. Ha ha.”
Airplane Restoration - Wait. What? Airplane restoration? Yep. In her free time, Ms. Kane is part of the team at Vintage Wings Inc. (out of Franklin, PA) that restores World War II aircrafts.
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