His inner passion
Edwin Lim’s journey in pursuing his art career
BVH Photography teacher Edwin Lim shares with the class congressional art contestant Giovanna Sanchez’s photo with his class. Edwin Lim Provides students with art award opportunities.
December 12, 2022
On Nov. 11, 2022 Bonita Vista High (BVH) Photography and AP 2-D Art and Design teacher Edwin Lim was awarded the 2022 Outstanding Secondary Visual Arts Educator award by the California Art Education Association (CAEA). The award is presented to a different nominated member of the CAEA each year to celebrate the achievements of individuals in the field of art education.
Despite his extensive career, teaching was not a career Lim initially set out to pursue. After having a long-time passion for art, Lim originally was interested in pursuing a career as a film director. However, he felt the job would not be sustainable so he reconsidered the profession and instead fell into the occupation as a teacher at BVH after hearing about the opening from a friend.
“My dream was to be the next great director, but I heard something from Harlem Ellison, he said, ‘If you have any artistic ambition, do your art on the weekend but get a day job so you don’t starve.’ So teaching became my wonderful day job and I fell in love with it at the same time,” Lim said.
Although Lim started working at BVH as an English teacher, he eventually received the title of the school’s Photography and AP 2D Art and Design teacher which allows him to pursue his passion for art while making a living and encouraging the passion within his students. Lim explains that his devotion to art adds to the significance of his teaching positions.
“I am very fortunate to be able to make a living in what I truly adore. How many people get to teach art, or do what they love? So I don’t take that for granted and I try to share that with my students. Do what you love, but you have to make a living from it,” Lim said.
Graduate of BVH Julian Rodriguez was a student in Lim’s AP 2-D Art and Design class his senior year and can attest to Lim’s passion as an art teacher. Rodriguez first met Lim during his freshman year and explains that Lim’s enthusiasm for art was reflected in the way that he pushed his students. The most important part of teaching is that you need to have a love for what you teach and a love of the students. I tell the students to create art they love, work really hard, and create something they truly enjoy. That’s a great mission for life. — Photography and AP 2-D Art and Design teacher Edwin Lim
“He is a man who lives and breathes art. He paid attention to every student and made sure they succeeded,” Rodriguez said. “He prioritized participation from his students and he wanted them to continue creating art outside the classroom. In other words, he made sure every student was aiming for creativity and quality.”
Lim’s dedication to his students was especially evident when he worked closely with Rodriguez to help him earn the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir of San Diego’s Student Grant in 2022. Rodriguez shares how Lim’s efforts in guiding him through the application process eventually lead him to win the $3,500 grant.
“He cared so much that my application was successful and worked really hard to make sure I got all the forms and materials needed. I remember he was running around campus to print my recommendation letter and application forms.” Rodriguez said. “Overall, Mr. Lim is a teacher who believed in me and my success as an artist.”
Dance I, Dance II, International Baccalaureate Dance and Get to The Pointe (GTP) dance team teacher Christine Timmons shares a similar passion for the arts, similar to Lim, which she explains has strengthened their bond as colleagues. More specifically, Timmons notes that as teachers in the arts, they share a unique understanding of each other’s work.
“We have to rely on each other to understand what we go through every day, in the sense that perhaps other teachers on campus don’t value what we do,” Timmons said. “We are also both very passionate about what we do and we love sharing our passion with our students. I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Lim has a strong dedication to the arts but explains that for a long time he was left with a feeling described as “imposter syndrome” which made him feel a sense of unworthiness as an art teacher. This feeling is what ultimately made the award so special to Lim because it served as a form of validation for all of his work.
“I feel very blessed and humbled to be chosen as the 2022 high school art teacher of the year. It sort of cured my imposter syndrome. Some days I feel like I just pretend I really am an art teacher…It’s tempting as this immigrant kid from the Philippines to question, ‘How did I get to become an art teacher?’” Lim said.
A notable part of Lim’s teaching philosophy is the representation of culture and diversity in the classroom. Lim highly values diversity in the classroom, partly because he is an immigrant from the Philippines. Lim explains that as an immigrant, he was mainly pushed to pursue a career in business or engineering, a stark contrast to his chosen career as an art teacher.
“As an immigrant who came from the Philippines, I was pushed to be a businessman or an engineer. My parents were saying they want me to have a solid, great career to honor their sacrifice,” Lim said. “I gravitated toward art and storytelling. So in college, I told my parents I was an engineer but switched my major in three days to become a visual arts major.”
As Lim nears his twentieth year teaching at BVH, his love for his students and art remains strong. Ultimately his message through teaching is to encourage students to pursue what they love and stay true to their passion.
“The most important part of teaching is that you need to have a love for what you teach and a love of the students,” Lim said. “I tell the students to create art they love, work really hard, and create something they truly enjoy. That’s a great mission for life.”
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