Adding Dimension to Life - One Art Class at a Time

A vibrant new teacher is joining the OCS family this fall!

Stefanie Wade will be teaching art to kindergartners through eighth graders.

For years, Stefanie has worked as a graphic designer, working on websites, brochures and photography for two different companies. Her creative marketing solutions have led her to see art in both a beautiful and practical way.

Stefanie and her husband of 15 years have three sons: a nine-year-old and seven-year-old twins.

She has been volunteering with her church’s children’s area for years, including three years helping out with the VBS program.

“I enjoy my kids,” said Stefanie, “And I didn’t know I would also enjoy spending time with other people’s kids.”

This revelation led Stefanie to go back to school to earn her teaching certificate from UW Madison. Her student teaching experiences led her to gain experience in a high school setting and a kindergarten through fifth grade setting, and she is ready to dive in!

“I just love encouraging kids in their art practice,” said Stefanie. “The young ones have such an excitement for it to begin with. They always amaze me.”

Stefanie said she wants to teach her students to use art as an act of worship.
“I want to relate art to God’s intentionality and design. … I’m excited to be at a Christian school where we can be open with how we talk about God.”

Stefanie is especially passionate about three dimensional art and plans to have a variety of materials at the ready: cardboard, coat hangers, modeling clay and more!

While student teaching, Stefanie helped students work on projects with real world applications like “zoo stations,” where students built habitats for zoo animals, and product packaging, where students brought in household objects and designed an attractive package for presenting the object in a store.

With projects like these, Stefanie hopes to encourage students who love art to explore careers in design, architecture and other specialty fields.

When Stefanie is not in the classroom, she enjoys photography, sewing, strength training and board games with her family.