Angie Waller is the lead art instructor at Wayne Community College, where she created the Art of Giving project. ‘We have been quite impactful to our community because of the sacrifices that some of these students make,’ she notes.(Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Of her students, WCC art instructor Angie Waller says, ‘I give them my best, and I expect their best.’ The results speak for themselves. Here, Waller’s student, Victor Vega-Avila, proudly displays his charcoal drawing.(Angie Waller|Courtesy photo)
‘It’s my job to push ‘em, and they know I’m going to push,’ says WCC lead art instructor Angie Waller of her students. Student Sydney Norris, shown here with her acrylic painting, is proof that the pushing pays off.(Angie Waller|Courtesy photo)
‘It is a privilege to be a steppingstone on these talented students’ path,’ declares WCC art instructor Angie Waller. Student Dominick Wormely is on a path he hopes will take him to study architecture at UNC Charlotte.(Angie Waller|Courtesy photo)
Some of Angie Waller’s students, like Zoe McKinney, plan to major in art at a four-year school, although McKinney has yet to decide where she’ll continue her education.(Angie Waller|Courtesy photo)
WCC student Belle Daingerfield plans to major in art education at the Savannah College of Art and Design.(Angie Waller|Courtesy photo)
This story is not about Angie Waller. In fact, she’d just as soon her name not even be mentioned, something she makes clear from the get-go. This story is about giving back. The thing is, it’s a story only Waller can tell, so her name will be mentioned —a lot —but, keep in mind, the focus is on the message, not the messenger.
Waller is a Wayne County native, a Faison resident, the lead art instructor at Wayne Community College (where she started teaching in 2013), and an adjunct instructor at Sampson Community College.
Due to some bumps in the road in her own life, she found herself returning to school in her mid-30s, first to WCC, then to Barton College, and finally to East Carolina University for her graduate degree. Now, here’s where we get to the heart of the story: while enrolled at all three of the colleges she attended, Waller recalls, “I had a lot of people help open doors for me — of course, I had to do the work — but I had a lot of people come to bat for me…and I just never forgot those acts of kindness…and I swore, when I got out of all this schooling, that if I ever got to a place that I could be able to give back, that’s exactly what I would do.”
By 2015, she had reached that place, and that’s when she created a program at WCC called the Art of Giving. Perhaps what is most notable about the program is that it is a way for Waller to help her students, and a way for her students to help the community. Think of it this way: it’s paying it forward, times two.
Waller came up with the idea for the Art of Giving when she noticed that, as her students were preparing to leave WCC and move on to four-year colleges, they often lacked meaningful community service projects to list on their applications. Furthermore, many needed to strengthen their communication skills. So, she created a program that is required of students in her upper-level courses, wherein each semester, every student in class nominates a non-profit organization (or even a person) who could benefit from the students’ collective talents or their gifts of time, money, or supplies. Students must then deliver class presentations as a means of pitching their ideas, and based on their presentations, they all vote (by secret ballot) and decide which projects to take on, sometimes tackling more than one project per semester. Once the decisions are made, the students whose proposals won must coordinate the class’s efforts with whichever organization or person will be on the receiving end.
Over the years, some of their projects have included: washing and walking dogs at a Wayne County animal shelter, painting ladies’ fingernails and decorating Christmas trees at a nursing home, buying art supplies for a Goldsboro school, making blessing bags for a soup kitchen, and buying pizza for the firemen of the City of Goldsboro. One of the biggest projects they’ve done to date is making a financial donation to the North Carolina Troopers’ Association Caisson Unit and then completing 26 pieces of artwork to adorn the trailer used by the unit.
In an unusual move, Waller chose this semester’s project herself, although she’s quick to note that her class is “totally onboard” with it. On April 26, she and about 30 students (Waller always participates, as well) will devote several hours to picking up the trash that has become strewn along the 1.5-mile Reedy Branch Greenway walking trail that runs behind the college and Wayne UNC Hospital.
While her initial purpose in creating the Art of Giving may have been to provide the students with community service work to list on college applications, it’s clear that Waller’s aim is much loftier than that. “What I’m trying to do is develop that muscle memory for philanthropic-type work and being able to give back,” she admits.
So where does the money to support the Art of Giving come from? Each spring, a Juried Art Show is held at WCC, during which students’ original works of art are for sale. (There won’t be a sale this year — yet one more after-effect of Covid — but it should return next year.) Waller describes the show as extremely popular, with a Hunger Games-type atmosphere, where people have to hustle if they want to leave with a piece of art. Prices are purposely kept affordable, at $150 and below.
Waller doesn’t demand that students donate their artwork for the show; she asks. But if they do choose to donate — and most do — she’s very specific about what she expects from them. “I tell them, ‘I don’t want your worst. I want your best,’” she says. “’If you can’t give me your best, don’t do it.’” It can be quite challenging for a student to give up a prized work of art, but Waller feels that by being willing to give away their best, they actually “have some skin in the game.” She stresses that it’s important that they experience the sacrifice that comes with giving.
Waller is passionate about her students’ talents, and she’s equally passionate about the ways in which they’re using those talents to help others. “I tell my students, this is your magic power,” she says. And there’s no better way to use magic than for the greater good.
To see more artwork by Waller’s students, go to the Facebook page for Fine Arts at Wayne Community College. To find out more about the Art of Giving, contact Waller at arwaller@waynecc.edu.
