Berkeley High School arts teacher Candiss Youngblood discovered her love for art in college, where she also used it as a tool of stress maintenance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started using (art) as a strategy to help my mental health. So when I was in college, feeling very overwhelmed and stressed in school, I started taking art classes as a dedicated time in my week to decompress and have some time for myself,\u201d Youngblood said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Youngblood grew up in a small town south of Salinas called Gonzales. \u201cThere\u2019s not even a stoplight in town, it\u2019s very tiny,\u201d Youngblood said. After getting a degree in art from San Francisco State University, Youngblood started teaching in Gonzales. Youngblood explained how she didn\u2019t know exactly what she wanted to do after college but knew she wanted to make a difference in other people\u2019s lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTeaching did not seem like something in my near future because high school was so challenging. But after going to college and only really enjoying my art and ethnic studies courses, I decided to continue just pursuing those two disciplines,\u201d Youngblood explained, \u201cI graduated with an art degree, and didn\u2019t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The advice Youngblood has for students after graduation, no matter where they end up, is to stick with their values and stay aware of how they impact others. \u201cAs a young person going away to school or whatever path you choose, I would just always keep in mind, who benefits from the narratives you\u2019re learning? Who is supported and held at the center of the work you\u2019re doing? And to be mindful of your position within the systems and how you can continue to uplift others,\u201d Youngblood said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Youngblood makes a point in her classes to present herself as a role model\u00a0 and example for upholding integrity. In her words, \u201cI\u2019ve always been very opinionated and outspoken on what I believe is right, and even if a system is against you, sometimes you have to stand up for what\u2019s right,\u201d Youngblood said. Throughout her now 10 years at BHS and 14 years teaching overall, Youngblood hopes her students remember that there was a safe and community-based environment in her classroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berkeley High School arts teacher Candiss Youngblood discovered her love for art in college, where she also used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-240155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}