Oklahoma Christian University’s successful gaming and animation program is welcoming two new faculty members for the 2019-2020 school year.
Ellie Kirkner and Skyler Thomas are Oklahoma Christian alumni and former adjuncts who began teaching classes this week.
“Games offer the opportunity to make space for everyone,” Kirkner said. “They are one of the largest cultural identifiers of us growing and coming together. Games say who we are.”
Before graduating from Oklahoma Christian in 2016, Kirkner attended the Art Institute of California-Orange County, studying game art and design. In addition to working as a concept
artist for the K20 Center in Norman, she has freelanced numerous projects, including art direction and development for both online and board games. Kirkner is currently pursuing her Masters of Fine Art in Game Development with the Academy of Art University.
“Learning and sharing is my natural state of being,” Kirkner said. “My favorite way to engage with others is by sharing or learning something new, so teaching comes organically. I love it when students share something cool they find with me and I love to share the same with them.”
Kirkner said she is passionate about her students and looks forward to seeing what they will create, especially after observing student work during Oklahoma Christian’s Honors Summer Academy.
“I’m always surprised by what the students can come up with,” Kirkner said. “I saw students build functional games in a week. I could play them and see the coding they created… one student even created a game where the character moonwalks, so the entire game you are going backwards. As a creative, it’s easy to think that you are imaginative, but the ideas that other people come up with will blow you away.”
According to Kirkner, returning to teach at her alma mater is an exciting opportunity.
“OC can be home to this amazing gaming community,” Kirkner said. “It’s amazing to know that you are in the right place.”
Thomas said he anticipates the upcoming school year as a professor and mentor for Senior Seminar, a class which helps students put together their portfolios and allows him to watch the students he taught as freshmen prepare for their postgraduate career.
“I’m ready to be around the students and all the inspiration they give me,” Thomas said about the new school year. “I’m excited to see what we can do because we have a lot of very talented students.”
Thomas served as an adjunct professor at Oklahoma Christian from 2013-2015 while pursuing his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Central Oklahoma.
“It was never in my wheelhouse of thinking that I’d be a teacher, but after the first semester I taught in 2013, I fell in love with teaching,” Thomas said.
As one of the first of five students to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Gaming and Animation at Oklahoma Christian, Thomas has experience in the industry in addition to teaching. He worked as an animator for Norman PDC Productions and spent a year teaching at Oklahoma Baptist University.
“This program has been on the incline for the past seven years,” Thomas said. “I’m looking forward to showcasing what our students can do.”
Thomas said he values Oklahoma Christian’s community within the liberal arts department and hopes that students can gain a well-rounded perspective in the program.
“The student-teacher relationships are as tight-knit as you can get,” Thomas said. “We really care about our students, whether you are in gaming and animation or one of the other liberal arts classes. It’s always good to see the outside perspectives from other students. We learn a lot from all of the departments.”
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