“I worked at Noodles and Company for five years as a manager, and a before and after school program for elementary students,” said Kutz.
Teacher Feature: Ms. Kutz
Mead welcomes Ms. Katie Kutz to the art department
Ms. Katie Kutz is a new teacher at Mead High who teaches art classes. While she is new to the school, she is not new to SVVSD.
In fact, she is a St. Vrain Valley District graduate — she attended Frederick High and graduated in 2014.
Growing up, she lived in Firestone, Colorado and has many fond memories. Some of her favorite moments involved walking around with her friends and exploring different surrounding towns.
Kutz did not always want to be a teacher. She actually wanted to be a tattoo artist, but ended up feeling like the community just wasn’t for her.
Although she wasn’t the biggest fan of high school, Kutz loved college. She spent four years working for an associates degree, and then transferred to CSU for art and education.
Speaking highly of her experience, Kutz said, “I lived off campus and would commute an hour to school every day. I didn’t have the typical college experience, but I wouldn’t change the way I did it at all.”
Though she preferred college to high school, she wanted to teach at this level to make a positive experience for her students. “I became a teacher because I wanted to change that for other students,” she shared.
Her favorite part of working at Mead is seeing how students express themselves while discovering who they are. She said, “In high school you have a lot of responsibilities, but it is the time to have as much fun as possible and start to find out who you are before going out into the real world.”
Kutz also has a passion for working on her own DIY projects and reading. Her favorite genre of books are fantasy and murder mystery, and her favorite medias of art is charcoal and oil paint.
“I love the feeling of having created and accomplished something of my own doing,” she added.
Tessa Avery (‘23) said, “I like her because she… understands her students and their interests. Her class allows us a lot of creative freedom and she’s supportive of all of our ideas.”
Emily Riley (‘23) added, “Her classroom is such a great environment, I really feel like I’m able to express my creativity how I want to.”
Lastly, while it may or may not be obvious, Kutz used to be a “scene queen” — and we love her for it. She said, “Freshman year I loved the screamo music, the clothing, and [the] hairstyle.”
Mead High School is very thankful to have Kutz as one of our art teachers.