By Annie Marcelino
When you first meet Haelee Choi, the first thing Haelee Choi standing in front of her works you’ll notice about her is her style: sleeves bunched at her elbows, elegant knitted cardigans with holes from years of wear-and-tear, and leather shoes splattered with spray paint splotches. The second thing you’ll notice, the most apparent when you first try to talk to her, is that she’s always moving. She floats around crowded tables filled with children, passing around art supplies, like a head chef commanding her kitchen during happy hour. The noise hardly bothers her. She has one mission: to get her students to college, and you can see her determination in the way she directs group art projects and teaches her students. Right beside her, sitting at one of the many studio tables, is Jordan, one of Haelee’s art students. Hunched over, eyebrows pinched, he focuses on the third installment of his college application portfolio. His art stems from a given prompt: “Show us an original art piece that reflects you in some way.” As his charcoal scratches the paper, he pauses, a thought crawling through his mind. This thought has intrigued him many times before, a constant nagging in the back of his head. He wonders if he is making the right choice: art college.