Teacher Appreciation Week: Q&A with alumnus Brandon Williamson

After growing up in the classroom with his music teacher father, Brandon Williamson, ’16, ’17, knew education was for him. However, it was Buffalo State’s creative studies program that helped him merge his love for creativity with his passion for educating.

Today, Williamson fuses creativity into his roles as assistant principal at Elmwood Village Charter School and a creativity consultant for various educational organizations. He was recently recognized on Buffalo Business First’s 40 Under 40 List, a distinction that honors those who have distinguished themselves in their companies, their communities and their industries before their fortieth birthdays. 

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, Williamson graciously gave a few moments of his time to reflect on his Buffalo State journey.

When and how did you know that education was the right fit for you?
I've always been in education. My father was a music teacher, so I grew up with him being in my elementary school—you spend a lot of time with teachers when you're waiting for them to finish up their day and things like that. Ever since I graduated from college, I jumped right into education, and I've been there ever since. 

How and why did you choose to come to Buffalo State?
I've always had a passion for giving back to the community that gave to me. I started teaching theater with little kids, then moved to higher education at Fredonia, andI thought to myself, “How can I apply this back on the home level?” I wanted to figure out how I could bring creativity into education, and Buffalo State’s creative studies program piqued my interest.I took the first class, and I was hooked. The first question they asked was, “How are you going to apply this to your life?” I started thinking about creativity fit into education and what I was already doing. I'm a performance artist, a poet—my world has always been surrounded in creativity—but to be able to put a name to it, and then to add a function to it, was life-changing. 

How did Buffalo State support you on your path to becoming a teacher?
I went to my professors and I told them I wanted to focus on and figure out how creativity fits not just in the classroom, but also in curriculum or the culture, which is what I'm more about now as an assistant principal. I've found that teachers don’t often think about creative solutions, but if you have someone who's there to primarily focus on that, that makes a big difference. My professors supported that. They were impressed with the idea and some of them were already doing research in it, so we were able to work together to kind of build what that can look like. 

What lesson from Buffalo State has stayed with you?
Sometimes things don't go the exactly the way you expect them to, but you learn how to go with the flow. It’s about understanding what's happening around you and then knowing that things aren't always going to go exactly how you plan them to, but you still have the opportunity to make the most of it. My professors would explain how they were able to make differences in bigger organizations than I’d ever worked with, even on the smallest scale, and it inspired me to keep going. It inspired me to keep pushing.

What advice do you have for new teachers?
Find an outlet outside of school. You need something that is going to help you recharge. It’s an exhausting job; it takes a lot out of you. People are going to tell you, “Remember why you're doing it. Remember you're doing it for the kids,” and that’s a given, but remember that you can't pour from an empty cup. Find that outlet and don't give it up for anything.

Photo by Jesse Steffan-Colucci, Buffalo State photographer.