Ģ������Ƶ

 Ģ������ƵStories      December 5, 2025

By Cam Adams

Alexis Shafir rolls paint over a slab of wood she etched into art. She takes it over to the printing press in Bardo Arts Center, presses it down onto a surface and delights in the result on her paper, fabric or whatever else her imagination desires.

As an art education major, Shafir has done this a million times before, and it doesn’t get old. Now, she’s able to share that love thanks to a grant.

Shafir, along with Ģ������Ƶ professor Erin Tapley, wrote and earned a School University Teacher Education Partnership grant to get a printing press installed at Blue Ridge School in Cashiers where she’s interning this semester.

“That was really cool actually, just having an impact,” Shafir said. “For an internship to turn into something, to have a lasting impact when really it's they're more doing something for me by allowing me to be there. 

“They're helping me up, but then I get to help them out and do something, so that's really nice.” 

SUTEP grants are sponsored by the College of Education and Allied Professions with the goal of supporting initiatives that will enhance WCU’s partnerships in the region. Though, like most grants, they aren’t typically written by students like Shafir.

She was the only student at the information session she attended, surrounded by a slew of Ģ������Ƶprofessors. Writing a grant seemed quite foreign to her — and it was a lot of writing.

Shafir wrote about what the project was, why it matters, what students at Blue Ridge School would gain from it as well as how it would align with the College of Education and Allied Professions’ goals and mission values.

And that isn’t mentioning the budget request the grant proposal included.

“They don’t have a dedicated art fund,” Shafir said. “Honestly, the students didn't have much art education in middle school, so a lot of them didn't know anything about printmaking, so (I’ve been) just kind of introducing them to that.”

Along with writing the grant, Shafir has also been a valuable intern for Amy Winston, an art teacher at Blue Ridge School, and her program. Shafir said she’s had a lot of fun doing lesson planning, making examples of work and setting up presentations.

She’s even helped organize a trip for Blue Ridge School students to visit Ģ������Ƶwhere they watched a visiting artist put on a professional printmaking demonstration. And she’s also been able to teach a couple of her other loves in class: drawing and pottery.

“Ms. Shafir has made an extraordinary impact on our high school art program,” Winston said. “Her creativity, organization and genuine care for students have enriched our program and has been inspiring to all of the students that come into contact with Ms. Shafir.”

Shafir’s education at Ģ������Ƶhas been valuable to her, too, as a senior. Though she mainly came to Cullowhee to join the Pride of the Mountains marching band, Ģ������Ƶhas allowed Shafir to reconnect with a passion she discovered at an afterschool art program when she was a kid.

“The studios have a lot of resources,” Shafir said. “The professors are very understanding and they work with you really well, like if you're doing an outside project, they'll help you, like if you have certain things you want to work on outside of class and then like the materials in the building… there's a lot of things to do.”

She loves working on the throwing wheel in pottery, making cylinders and bowls and working with glazes to get certain effects. She loves picking up the pencil in drawing and creating new pieces of art, particularly fantasy illustrations.

That joy she feels when working on the wheel, paper or the new printing press that will stay in the art classroom at Blue Ridge School will radiate to its students — even after her time there is finished.