At Richmond Hill High School, our academies stand behind our great directors. Every event, trip, and the many other amazing opportunities that are given to students are a part of the collaborative work done by academy directors. In the Art, Media, & Design Academy, Ms. Kastin is the one that allows many events and opportunities to come to life.
Ms. Kastin helps with coordinating new different events to celebrate the success of students, while also working with Ms. Fowler to keep the students on track. She works with other staff to ensure that students arrive at school everyday on time, but also pass and enjoy their classes. At the same time, she also gives students emotional support inside and outside the classroom, emphasizing that “mental health is just as important as academic health.”
However, before Ms. Kastin began her career as an Academy Director, she wasn’t always a teacher. Previously, she worked on graphic designing, and took interest in photography and visual communication at college. Moreover, she had decided to become a Teaching Fellow; later taking a profession in teaching. Ms. Kastin reminisced that ever since she was little, she wanted to become an art teacher due to her passion for the arts, unfortunately, she couldn’t find a teacher role model. As she grew older, she refound her passion for teaching due to connecting with more teachers and decided to go back to school for her teaching degree as a double masters; mentioning that “[she] wanted to do more.” She also added, “The Academy of Media, Art, and Design just made sense because I love art, and I’ve always been into art since I was little.”
Not only is Ms. Kastin the director of the Art, Media & Design Academy, she is also a special education teacher and a CTE- certified art teacher. She helps teach Career and Technical Education, where they teach hand ons skills that students can actually use in the real world. For example, this includes medical assisting, computer coding, adobe certifier, and more. She wanted students from the design academy to be able to use real world scenario skills and help incorporate that within art. “I really like that our school has career-connected learning,” she said.
Unbeknownst to most people, Ms. Kastin was also the designer behind all the logos of each academy, introducing her goal to have a greater impact in school building and uplift school spirit. Ms. Kastin is also on the team to help the school become CTE approved by the state. She adds that she enjoys her role as an academy director because she “gets to do a little bit of everything.”
Finally, Ms. Kastin shared some heartfelt advice for students. She reminded them that they’ll meet all kinds of people; some who stay in their lives for years and others who might not. Even if those connections fade away, each one leaves a permanent mark. Moreover, friendships may change or dissipate, but there’s always something positive to take away from those moments. She added that while students might not keep in touch with every teacher, they’ll most likely carry the lessons imparted to them. “Theres always a piece of them that sticks with you,” she added.
