Emily Lu

My career as a teaching artist started in college, where I worked as a classroom assistant in several preschools. It was there that I discovered my love for education and specifically the power of arts to spark socio-emotional growth. In 2024, I completed my B.A. in Education Studies at Wellesley College, where I gained a comprehensive background in education theory, education policy, sociology, and psychology that informs my work as an educator. I am currently an FAO Schwarz Fellow at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, where I work with our outreach programs, Claymobile and the after school program. As part of my role, I have also conducted extensive research on SEL practices in arts, which I then translated into an SEL framework of nine competencies specifically designed for Claymobile. From this framework, I designed and delivered a professional development program for Claymobile teaching artists which includes an SEL toolkit featuring theory and best practices, an interactive workbook where teaching artists can complete exercises designed to inspire reflection about their own teaching practices, and a series of nine professional development sessions involving skill shares between our team of teaching artists and opportunities to practice relevant skills.