2008 - 2009 Annual Report - St. John's-Kilmarnock School

Alumni Profiles
Katrina Schaman ‘01
A Whole New Mind from SJK
Katrina Schaman (Class of ‘01) loves art, technology, and combining the two together with her
role as a Web Developer and Digital Illustrator. She is launching into the creative realm of web
development and digital illustration with a foundation in traditional art and the values of SJK. She
really does epitomize the thesis of Dan Pink’s book A Whole New Mind, where he advocates the
creation of leaders through left and right brain action. Katrina understands the technical aspects
(the left side), but is also able to think creatively (the right side) through art to help her clients
reach innovative end results.
Life after SJK
After graduation in 2001, Katrina continued her education at Queen’s University, completing a
Bachelor of Fine Arts. This unique program was one of the few in Canada that had a heavy
emphasis on applied art, which meant spending a lot more time in the studio rather than in
lecture halls. A true artist, she just wanted to create! It was at Queen’s were she began to cross
into the digital realm and enjoyed it so much that she decided to enroll in Sheridan College’s one
year post-grad program in Web Development and Digital Media. Not wanting to get a ‘typical job
as a coder,’ Katrina opted for the more creative route as a freelance developer. She now lives in
Toronto and serves small businesses, developing websites and digital media.
Values from SJK
Katrina spent twelve years at the school and has many fond memories of life at SJK. “SJK
allowed us to be who we wanted to be. There were no cliques and we had strong support from
our teachers.” Katrina remembers the many trips she took with SJK, time on the field hockey
pitch, art class with Ms. MacDonald, and sneaking down for dips in the pond more times than she
should have! When she made the transition to university, she remembers it being a lot easier for
her than for her classmates from other high schools. “SJK set us up extremely well for university
by teaching us how to manage our workload, make time for friends, and balance work and life.”
Her future goals
As Katrina launches her career, she is excited for what may come. On the near horizon, she is
looking forward to partnering up with a few other like-minded techno-artists to start their own
company. In the long run, she is excited to explore the possibilities of illustrating children’s books
and finding ways to integrate social media components. She is becoming more and more
interested in the marketing and business development side of social and digital media, and is
excited to explore it further.