The Lion's Pride vol. 2 (Jun. 2014) | Page 124

117 Ellen Chris Mallot I am in my final quarter of Funeral Service Education at LWIT. My journey to LWIT has been a long, diverse one. I wasn't absolutely certain of what program I wanted to enter until I saw that Funeral Services was available, and I knew in that instant that this was what I wanted. Reading through the required curriculum, I began to worry when I saw "Restorative Art" on the list. I have never had any artistic ability and as a result, figured I would not do well. The purpose of this training is to be able to recreate features of the deceased that may have been damaged as a cause of death. We want to be able to make a presentable viewing that will help grieving families to adjust to their loss, the importance of this cannot be understated. As the class began, I quickly acknowledged to our instructor, Lauren Budrow, that I likely won't do well because of the lack of artistic ability, as did some other students. She reassured the class that we will all do much better than we were anticipating. Through several weeks of study, we were all given a plastic base and 2 pounds of restorative art wax to build the features of a selected person. I was impressed by the work of my classmates, and was striving to make mine comparably well. Through constructive feedback and encouragement from Lauren and other students, I was able to produce a much better end product than I could have ever imagined. The whole class was able to produce some incredibly impressive results with all of their submissions. I feel confident in the abilities of not only my classmates, but also myself now.