The value of mentorship: A profile of Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs Justin Phillips

In his time at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Justin Phillips ‘01 has been a student, an instructor in the College’s continuing education program, an adjunct instructor, a mentor, an Assistant Professor, a guide to colleagues (as instruction moved online due to the pandemic), and an Assistant Dean. Moving through all of those distinct roles, he attributes much of his artistic and professional growth to the mentorship he’s received from professors, colleagues, and others in and out of his creative field.  

“My life has been shaped a lot by mentors, some of whom were amazing impactful people that just believed in me or were there for me in my formative years,” he said. “I think sometimes we all benefit from people that see a little more in us than we see at the current moment. They introduce us to the bigger picture.”   

Phillips’ teaching career began in 2005 as he taught at several art centers, community centers, and night school. “When I was in high school I had a good friend’s mother who was in education who really encouraged me to think about becoming a teacher. Having the opportunity to teach art really inspired me to continue my education and pursue a master’s degree.” In 2011, Phillips began teaching for the College’s CE program (the precursor to its Center for Creative Exploration), and fell in love with teaching even more. 

When Phillips arrived at PCA&D as a student, it was with the plan to earn his associate degree – what the school offered at the time. When the school expanded its accreditation to offer bachelor’s degrees, he took a gap year and then returned to join the first BFA cohort to earn their Bachelor’s degree in 2001. 

The students are our ‘why’ and they are the heartbeat and the reason we do what we do, and it comes down to making sure they can achieve what they want while they’re here, and prepare for what comes next once they graduate.

Twelve years later, with teaching experience under his belt, Phillips returned to his alma mater as an adjunct. It gave him a unique opportunity and perspective, he said: As a Foundation-year instructor, he worked alongside Tom Scullin, one of the College’s founders, and someone who had taught Phillips when he himself was a student. “I feel a special connection to the founders of the College having learned from many of them in the classroom. To be able to join Tom as a colleague was a great opportunity to learn from an amazing artist and master educator.” After several years in the classroom, Phillips began to work with academic and student affairs collaborative student support programming, giving special attention to students who were at risk or who needed a bit of mentoring and guidance to help them thrive at PCA&D. 

“Students started to reach out to me as a mentor, and over time it kind of segued into me being one formally,” Phillips said. “I was in a unique position working as a faculty member mentor, helping students out in that official role, both roles sort of informed each other.”

That instructional role continued for several years – until the global pandemic arrived. That inspired Phillips’ next position change, to a half staff/half faculty hybrid. His charge then was to “help faculty really think about their teaching methodology and how that would work in that online modality best. It was a matter of working to re-contextualize the work they already were doing and in some cases adding additional content and resources.”

Today, as Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, he develops and coordinates academic and studio support programming for students, brings a studio artist perspective to the College’s career services team,  and coordinates PCA&D’s high school dual-enrollment program, and even more. 

When he left the classroom to take on full-time administrative work, he did so realizing that, “there are a lot of ways you can teach and impact lives,” Phillips observed, “a lot of ways you can inform and inspire.”

Since then, Phillips’ portfolio of responsibilities includes:

• He now has five alumni / studio mentors reporting to him. “Faculty can refer students who need support or students can self-refer – either they’re struggling or they just want to expand their skills. For example if they, ‘want to do more in oil painting, or in digital illustration focusing on specific techniques software, or improving their workflow.’ Mentors also create and deliver workshops for both skill expansion and exploration and support. A time-management workshop or “how to get started” on an assignment would be an example,” Phillips said. 
• Last academic year, Phillips worked with 23 Near Completer students who returned to their education after having to stop out of their higher education journey. Phillips stood alongside the cohort and walked them through their return to college last year leading up to their May graduation.
• Phillips works with the College’s dual-enrollment program, which allows high school students to attend PCA&D classes and receive college credit. 
• In conjunction with Holly Mosher, Phillips works with the Career Development Fellows program, an initiative of PCA&D that kicked off with the 2023-2024 academic year. This year’s two Fellows began their tenure this summer, and Phillips will be working with them on “working as productive creatives, working with clients, professionalism, setting smart goals, on bigger thinking and self-development.”
• Phillips also works with the Career Services team, especially in the area of advising alumni, “from questions about what I should do to bolster my resume for grad school, to graduates who are arts-adjacent and want to refocus on their studio practice.”

How does Phillips work to build all these connections?

“I work hard to make myself available in the College community,” he said, “from Welcome Week to attending critiques and departmental events.” And, he added, “students are welcome to just stop by my office in the Learning Commons. I’m here to help and support in any way possible. I am still active in my studio, for example, and I’m always happy to talk about artists, studio challenges, and offer career advice.”

What makes all of the outreach especially rewarding, he said, is that he gets to pursue it all in PCA&D’s creative environment. 

“I don’t take it for granted,” Phillips said. “When people come in who aren’t a part of it normally, they’re blown away. So to be part of it is really special. 

Phillips’s own creative practice is an essential part of that tie to the overall creative life of the College. His art, a survey of the connections between self and surroundings, embraces intuitive mark making, conjuring rhythms, erasure, and chance elements, and is reminiscent of a meditation ritual or routine. As a practicing artist, Phillips is able to bridge the seeming divide between the creative life and a “day job”: they both serve a common purpose.

“The students are our ‘why’ and they are the heartbeat and the reason we do what we do, and it comes down to making sure they can achieve what they want while they’re here, and prepare for what comes next once they graduate.”

That’s the value of mentorship, Phillips said. “PCA&D has shaped a lot of who I am today as an artist and educator, and I feel like mentoring is a way to give back to the College. I always see teaching as standing on the shoulders of giants. You’re using what you’ve learned and the hope is that someday those you are mentoring will do the same. 

“I always tell students, we’re the beneficiaries of work others have put their heart and soul into, so it’s important to learn the craft and take it seriously and be able to share that with the world.”