Dylan Pforr
Art education major and East Asian studies minor from Waconia, Minnesota

A global view
MSUM’s East Asian studies minor is a fabulous complement to many career paths. Asian businesses are becoming transnational leaders in many fields. That’s just one reason to add a global complement to your education plan. Dylan studied for one semester at Nankai University in Tianjin, China, where he “experienced the world and met many different people. Once you understand a different culture, you tend to be more open minded about things.” He adds: “East Asian studies will make you more marketable. It’s good to have a diverse background and knowledge of other cultures.”

Teaching teens
After studying architecture and psychology at another university, Dylan felt called to in education. “Art is my passion and working in a child’s life is a passion, so I felt the combination of art and education is where I should be.” He admits to being “an A teacher and a B artist” and is looking forward to the benefits and challenges of working with young people.

Dylan worked at a Bible camp for six years and volunteers with youth at his church. He also spent more than 120 hours in practicum and teaching experiences with all different age groups and is student teaching this year at an elementary school and a middle school. “All of the time in the classroom has really solidified my decision to be an art teacher. I enjoy students of all ages.”

Long-term plans
“I follow a philosophy of ‘why make plans today when God is going to change them tomorrow,’ but I would eventually like to go overseas again and teach in China.” He’s also getting married in 2008 to his best friend Amy.

Check it out
As an artist, Dylan likes to visit the community’s art galleries. He enjoys the Rourke Gallery, Plains Art Museum, and the galleries at MSUM and NDSU. “Many local artists have their work in the FM galleries.” Some of his favorite galleries are the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Walker Art Center. He hopes to visit a lot more in the future.

Crumbling project
Dylan sculpted a two-and-a-half foot strawberry pot for the final project in his ceramic class, only to have it collapse the night before his class critique. Not a quitter, he remade it again, “not as nice as the one before, but I wasn’t going to let that affect me.” Lesson learned? “You think it’s always in your hands but it’s not. God can humbly change the plan.” He encourages art students to stick with it, don’t get upset, and talk with the professor when things don’t work out the way you expect.

Comic fan
“I like to read comic books, and Batman is my favorite comic book hero because he’s probably the most realistic one of them all.” Dylan has more than 1,000 Batman comic books!

I never thought I’d…
“Study overseas. I didn’t even think about it until it was introduced to me. It was a very affordable experience because I paid the same tuition to study in China as I pay at MSUM.”

He’ll try anything
“I like to eat a lot of weird food—the kinds of things you’d see on Fear Factor. I ate a lot of strange things in China.” Live octopus (he says it’s a Korean delicacy), squid and dog. “I was tricked into the first time,” he admits. “It was in the soup and I didn’t know it was dog until I ate it.”