The mission of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Denver Public Schools is to help students achieve success in their high school years, so that they may successfully pursue educational and career opportunities after high school.

 

KCAA currently offers two CTE Programs: Digital Design and Performing Arts. In 9th grade students have the option to explore a variety of art forms in both programs. In 10th grade they choose which Pathway they are most interested in and as 11th graders they pick a plan of study. By their senior year, KCAA students have mapped out a focused plan for their CTE courses, allowing them to learn and practice skills that will prepare them for college and/or careers in the creative industries. The KCAA CTE program reflects the modern workplace by teaching critical skills like problem solving, communication and teamwork while also rigorously integrating the Common Core language arts and math standards.

 

In addition to their CTE arts courses students may also choose from a diverse offering of other arts electives including photography, yearbook, dance and computer coding.

 

Digital Design - to include Graphic Design, Digital Media Arts, Illustration, Product Design and Portfolio Production

 

Jennifer Cooper - 3D Visual Arts and Product Design

Please check out the NEW 3D Arts Website! Thank you for visiting the 3D page, please contact me with any questions or comments!

https://sites.google.com/site/3dkcaa/

 

Jesse Preston - 2D Visual Arts and Graphic Design

Jesse Preston is a native of Colorado, and a product of Colorado schools attending Golden High School and Colorado Mesa University,where he received a BA in graphic design. He was also a  4-year letterman and wide receiver for the CMU Mavericks football team. He worked as the lead graphic artist at FASTSIGNS of Arvada for 5 years, while also attending the Metro State College teacher licensure program where he became a licensed art, physical education, and science teacher. He has been a teacher and/or coach for 7 years and has been part of the KCAA community since the schools inception in 2009, working as a 7th grade science teacher, and teaching art at every level (K-10). He has coached softball, flag-football, basketball, and baseball at KCAA. Winning 2 Prep-League Southwest Division Championships (Flag-Football 2011, Baseball 2011). His students have won several district and community art awards including ‘Best of Show’ in the 2010 DPS K-8 Exhibition. Last year he received the inaugural 2D ‘DPS Teacher Exemplary Concept Integration Award’ for his students work in the district shows. He currently teaches 6th-8th graders 2-Dimentional Art (Drawing 1, 2 and 3), and Career and Technical Education to 9th-10th graders (Graphic Design/Illustration).

 

Katie Weisberger - Digital Media and Photography

 

 

 

 

Performing Arts - Technical Theater, Audio Engineering, Instrumental Music and Musical Theater

 

Margo Collins - Technical and Musical Theatre

This is Mrs. Collins' 3rd year as a teacher here at the CAA. Prior to joining the staff, she worked in theatre production (production management, stage management, directing...)  and/or eduction in the Washington, DC area for such companies as The Studio Theatre, Ford's Theatre, The Smithsonian's Discovery Theater, Imagination Stage and Washington Revels among others. She received a BFA in Directing from the University of Michigan and her EdM in Arts in Education from Harvard. 

 

Sarah Burton - Musical Theatre

 

Lacey Ruskin - Drama

The adventure of teaching at Kunsmiller is a dream come true! A warrior from an early age, I have been forging unknown territory from the beginning.  Originally from New Jersey, I came to Colorado via Florida and Alaska.  Travelling around the country as a musical theatre performer, I traded in my desire to work professionally as an actor to stay in Talkeetna, Alaska for almost ten years.  While there, I served as the Executive Director for Denali Arts Council where I founded a youth summer stock theatre program, directing shows such as Pippin, Godspell and Schoolhouse Rocks!  I came to Colorado in 2008 to make a career change to education, and it was the best decision I ever made!  As the first person in my family to earn a master’s degree,  (M.A.Ed) I feel an awesome responsibility to myself, my family and most importantly the students at KCAA,  to do my best each day and seek out opportunities for improvement. I can’t wait to experience all that this year has to offer with the amazing staff and students here at Kunsmiller.

 

Luke Wachter - instrumental Music

Luke Wachter is now in his 4thYear at KCAA teaching instrumental and general music. As a Denver native, he is excited to continue bringing an innovative arts education to students in the Denver community.  Mr. Wachter holds bachelor’s degrees in both Music Education and Percussion Performance, summa cum laude, from the Metropolitan State University of Denver.  In addition to teaching band, strings, rock band, piano, sound painting and general music at KCAA, Mr. Wachter is also an active performing artist on drums and percussion in Denver and the front range areas playing everything from jazz to opera to classical music. In his spare time he enjoys cooking, reading, and riding his bike to work off the cooking.