A semester-long “passion” project challenged Elizabethtown College Early Childhood Education major Sydney Rumohr ‘23 to use her love of painting to showcase the importance of creativity and self-expression in the early childhood classroom. The result led to Rumohr creating one-of-a-kind, custom teacher-themed shoes for her newly-launched Etsy shop. 

Rumohr’s shoes are meant to represent the creativity of educators. Every detail on each shoe is hand-painted – between the notebook paper design, the apples, rulers, and pencils. She created three different designs for the project but decided to focus on selling the teacher-themed ones for her Etsy shop since the materials were the most accessible and affordable to create for customers.

The project took place in Assistant Professor of Education, PK-12 New Literacies Kathryn Caprino’s ED 360 – Integrated Strategies for Creative Expression in Early Childhood class during the fall 2021 semester. 

Rumohr wanted to research how painting can boost self-confidence. To study these benefits, the self-described perfectionist stepped out of her comfort zone by free-handing the custom shoe designs without fear of making mistakes and then publicly sharing her art with a wider audience.

“Dr. Caprino inspired me to go through this project with an open mind and to freely express my creativity in any form I wanted,” said Rumohr. “Her emphasis on the importance of creativity for early childhood students and people of all ages has helped prepare me to provide my future students with the supportive environment and opportunities they need to explore and express their creative endeavors.”

Caprino was proud of the risk that Rumohr took with her project and the focus that she placed on the process instead of the final product.

“So many times students want to play it safe to get a good grade and to be perfect,” said Caprino. “Yet, Sydney took on something she had never done before and relieved herself of the need for perfection.” 

The shoes she created were so cool and wonderful! But what I was most proud of was Syndey’s growth. The way she spoke about how she grew this semester and what this project taught her about herself was really the most powerful part of her work for me as her professor.”

This process has been important to Rumohr’s growth as a future educator and has taught her lessons that she hopes to carry over to her own classroom.

“Expressing your fun and creative side is a great way to strike up conversations with your students and also to help inspire and support their creative endeavors,” said Rumohr.