By: KATIE WILLIAMS
Staff Writer
El Diamante has welcomed a lot of new staff this year, and that’s including one of our new art teachers, Ms. Alonzo. Ms. Alonzo teaches 3D Art 1, 2, 3, 4 and Studio Art 1. This is her first year teaching in her own classroom, but before this she was a student teacher for a year and a half as well as substitute teaching here in Visalia. For highschool she attended Mt. Whitney. After that she went to Fresno State, got her Bachelors and then later got her single subject credentials. When I asked about what inspired her to become a teacher she answered that ¨she has always wanted to be a teacher and that she has shadowed art teachers to get a teacher perspective and not just a students perspective.¨ Ms. Alonzo has specifically wanted to teach high school art because students are learning to become more responsible as well as to watch them reach personal goals, such as in extracurricular activities, becoming more financially independent, and/or getting into their dream colleges! The reason she wanted to pursue art is because she loved learning new techniques. She said, “There is only so much you can learn in a single course.” She wanted to be surrounded by talented people and with that she’s met amazing people from school and also from an international setting. Ms. Alonzo likes artists of today. While the old masters are a fantastic reference, she prefers artists in the now. Some of her favorite artists include Zhao Xiaoli, James Jean, Lily Yuan, O’Neil Scott, Eddy Lee, and Esao Anderws. Some of her hobbies include traveling – she has traveled in almost all of the US, Mexico, and Fiji. Ms. Alonzo likes to get out of town. She visits her family in LA and before she leaves likes to hangout on the beach. When Ms. Alonzo can’t drive south; she stays home and watches TV or takes her dogs to the Three Rivers area. First because of the Olympics, then later Covid, had postponed her plans to visit Mexico, Japan, and Korea.
