Mentorship & Advising
Mentorship is a central component of the academic and creative experience at SMFA.
In addition to your academic advisors, faculty and staff are here to help instruct, influence, and collaborate in the development of your professional practice and academic experience. This may come in the form of critiques with faculty, studio managers who help you learn how to use new tools and methods, or curatorial staff who help you prepare for an exhibition. Your classmates and peers will also play an important role in both supporting you and pushing you further.
Undergraduate Advising
The Academic Advising Team at SMFA at Tufts works in partnership with the faculty to support you throughout your studies. Advisors help you track degree requirements, assist with course selection, and connect you to faculty and staff who will be important to both your artistic and academic development.
BFA Advising
Students enrolled in a BFA degree program have three members on their Advising Team on site at SMFA: a Senior Academic Advisors, Tobias Bennett and Stephanie Lam, and an Advising Dean, Leah Gadd. BFA students may meet with these advisors interchangeably throughout their academic careers.
In addition to providing students with guidance on course selection and degree requirements, the BFA Advising Team also advises students on study abroad and exchange opportunities, and helps with personal leaves of absence.
Combined Degree Advising
Students in the Combined Degree program have a dedicated Senior Academic Advisor, Ted Ogaldez, from the SMFA Advising Team and receive the same support as all SMFA undergraduates. Once students declare their BA/BS major, they will also work with a major advisor based in an academic department in Medford.
Graduate Advising
MFA Advising
Graduate students are required to meet with their graduate faculty advisor at least four times a semester to discuss the progress of their current work. Students must also meet with their academic advisor at least once each semester for guidance in selecting studio and liberal arts courses that are most appropriate to their path of study.
In addition to your faculty and academic advisors, the range of informal mentorship opportunities is abundant. This may come in the form of critiques with faculty members outside of the graduate faculty cohort, studio managers helping facilitate the teaching of specific tools and methods of making, or curatorial staff helping prepare for the MFA Thesis Exhibition.
MFA students will meet with the Interim Associate Director of Graduate Programs Kenson Truong to discuss course selection, degree requirements, and to prepare for their final theses throughout the program.
Post-Baccalaureate Advising
Post-Bacc students will meet with Karmimadeebora McMillan, to discuss which courses will best support their artistic goals.
Mentorship supports artists in growing and developing their individual practice by posing questions, providing guidance, and pushing the boundaries of the way they think and approach their studio practice. Mentorship provides a constructive and critical dialogue about the work within a larger cultural context, helping artists understand their own practice and location within contemporary art making and society at large.
My personal approach to mentorship focuses on empowering students to feel confident in their own decision making, encouraging students to take ownership and responsibility for the work they make and their role in the world. I am interested in helping each individual cultivate curiosity, risk-taking, and experimentation within all of their intellectual endeavors.