Mrs. Stroud is a major teacher who oversees digital arts such as graphic design, digital illustration, and animation. She contributes to a lot of behind-the-scenes aspects of LVA, but it often goes unnoticed. You don’t need to look any further than her room being nicknamed “The Bat Cave” to recognize the rather undercover nature of her majors; however, any of her students can tell you about how much she has impacted their lives.

Many students can recall times with Mrs. Stroud that have stuck with them such as Amelia Barnum. Currently a junior animation major, she highlights, “There was this one time where she gave me a special jazz opportunity to do art for the jazz band, and it was really cool…” 

Many students are given opportunities to collaborate with other majors such as the several collaborations with the Theater and Jazz Departments. When asked about her favorite memories at LVA, Mrs. Stroud spoke on these collaborations stating, “I think just whenever students have collaborated with other departments, they’ve made resources like projections. For theater or retractable signs for jazz, and they’ve just used their digital and creative skills to make some sort of visual content for another group to help their event be better and more appealing. That’s usually when I have the biggest pride for them.”

Outside of opportunities, Mrs. Stroud has a personality that’s unforgettable. A true example of this is a story that her senior students now remember from their freshmen year, where, “[Mrs.] Stroud had tripped an alarm in the school. For weeks after that, we had all started the running joke of photoshopping [Mrs.] Stroud onto stock images after she had photoshopped herself avoiding lasers,” Katelyn Hamilton, a senior animation major, retells.

Finally, when we asked Mrs. Stroud what one thing she wished students knew about her, she replied, “I found that working with them has made my life worthwhile. Really.”