Art Major Draws on Muse for Successful Internship

WNMU art major Yen Chu

© Western New Mexico University

“In my art pieces, subconsciously, I’d l put in elements of wildlife and nature,” said WNMU senior Yen Chu.

Intertwining her artistic tendencies and her environmental concern, she now interns with Gila Resources Information Project — managing their social media channels and helping plan the group’s upcoming Gila River Festival, among other assignments which range from designing marketing materials to organizing photo shoots.

“I never realized how much there is to do,” she said during her second week on the job. “Because it’s a nonprofit, everything is really self-propelled.”

As an art major at WNMU, Yen has noticed many of her classes have touched on the environmental impacts on art, making her consider identity as it relates to place. “Creating art, I was once really focused on the network between people, but it’s broadened into how we relate to our surroundings as well as each other. “I want people to reconsider where they see themselves in the world and the environment and taking responsibility in their actions and being more mindful in what they do and how that affects their surroundings,” she said, noting that this year’s Gila River Festival theme — (Re)connect With the River — is similar to that.

This job as well as the ones she’s held on campus have taught Yen to listen to people. “I try really hard to have a lot of conversations with people around me and try to get an idea of how everything works so I can learn. It’s really helped me and helped them. It’s a really effective tool to just further my own knowledge. It’s always handy to know a lot of stuff,” she said.

This is a WNMU student profile, Stampede: Faces, Stories, Lives. Get in touch with the names of other interesting Mustangs, and we’ll consider sharing their stories here.

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