One new face on campus this year is Joseph Schwall, the digital art teacher who is also a part of the Digital Business Academy (DBA).
Schwall first became interested in creating digital art after playing online games, he said. He also created fan-made content for these games, which inspired him to pursue animation throughout his high school and college years, he added.
“I played a couple of online games when I was a wee-little lad, like Wizard 101 and Toon Town,” Schwall said. “It inspired me to draw my own designs for levels, characters, and creatures. That eventually led me to studying animation in high school, and then continuing through college and after graduating.”
While learning about animation, Schwall realized that he appreciated educating others about the art, which inspired him to become a digital art teacher, he said.
“When I started studying animation (and) digital art, I realized that I really enjoyed teaching other people things and … being able to help other people grow their skills, but also grow my skills by teaching what I know and reinforcing that and discovering new things through teaching,” Schwall said.
Schwall is energetic and has a positive attitude, DBA lead Ahryun Han said.
“He’s very kind as well, and student-focused,” Han said.
Schwall’s teaching style focuses on creating a comfortable environment for students by playing music and allowing for friendly interaction, Han said.
“He checks in with students,” Han said. “He’s, as I said, quite energetic. He plays music in the background if it’s independent work time, and students are able to have comfortable conversations with him. They’re able to disagree with each other in a comfortable space as well.”
This semester, Schwall has covered a wide range of subjects for his Digital Art class, he said.
“In my Digital Art class, we’ve covered topics like elements of art, principles of design,” Schwall said. “We’ve covered AI ethics and implementing that into design. We’ve talked a lot about design thinking, how to go about solving a problem for a given group of people.”
Outside of classwork, Schwall also talks with students about their personal interests, senior Asha Balu said.
“He’s really close with us students, and most of us, at least in my period, are into Dungeons and Dragons, so we’ve all bonded over that,” Balu said.
Other interests Schwall has outside of digital art include playing a wide range of games, including both physical and online games, he said.
“I love gaming,” Schwall said. “I’m really into Rogue-lite and Metroidvania style games. I threw forty hours into Silksong in the first two weeks that it came out. I also really enjoy tabletop role-playing games.”
Schwall also hopes to educate the MHS community about the digital art medium and help students grow an interest in it, he said.
“I heard about how great this campus community is,” Schwall said. “I was really excited to make a splash and see if I can help to teach this community about the awesome things that animation and art can help educate in not just in that subject alone, but other subjects. I felt like there was a huge opportunity here, and the students are really showing an interest and passion in that.”
