Teacher Spotlight: Mr. Mussari
This past August, Saint Ursula Academy welcomed many new faculty and staff members. One of the many new faces is Mr. Anthony Mussari, the design teacher.
Starting from the beginning, Mr. Mussari was born in Pittsburgh but later moved to Cincinnati with his family. Although he grew up as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and will likely always be one, he also roots for Cincinnati’s professional baseball and soccer teams. During his high school career Mr. Mussari realized that he had a knack for design. It was with Photoshop that he began to dig deep into digital design. At that point, he knew he didn’t want to specialize in traditional media. With a computer and an excellent teacher, he quickly realized that graphic design was his calling.
After Mr. Mussari graduated high school, he attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he majored in interactive media design and graphic design. While he was getting his undergraduate degree, he landed a position within the university as the Director of Graphic Design for Miami's events planning department. As a director, he was exposed to quickly creating various designs. In sum, Miami University developed him into the superb teacher he is today.
After receiving his degree in graphic design, Mr. Mussari applied for many jobs, one of which, a graphic designer for Nintendo. While he didn’t get this job, he believes everything works out the way it should. If he had gotten the job at Nintendo, Mr. Mussari wouldn’t be here teaching design to the students of SUA.
While teaching has been an unexpected twist in his life, Mr. Mussari loves seeing his students grow in knowledge and understanding. He loves when students approach him outside of class about the concepts that are discussed in class and how it transcends beyond the confinement of the classroom. Mr. Mussari believes that hard work is one of the best qualities in a student. He does not grade based on talent because everyone has their individual struggles, so as long as students put in the hard work, he will be pleased.
Even if we have a 8 a.m. start, he expects his students to put in the effort and while some days students may struggle with this, Mr. Mussari’s vibrant, energetic, and contagious personality quickly rubs off on his students. He enjoys cracking jokes, providing optimism, and bringing positive energy to the classroom.
One thing Mr. Mussari is looking forward to with his new teaching job is watching his students grow as designers as well as individuals. He is thankful for what Ms. Allison Probst left behind, but plans on taking the design department in a more digital direction. He would love to see students that started at a beginner level go through the different levels of his classes and how they each progress.
When Mr. Mussari is not in the classroom you may find him watching Avengers: Infinity War and sports, or binging Seinfeld or Modern Family (Mr. Mussari has not gotten through the whole series yet, so don’t spoil it!) with his lovely wife. He loves listening to 80s rock, 80’s pop, and Taylor Swift. When he is near water you can find him scuba diving in the beautiful vast oceans. Mr. Mussari would love to one day be able to travel and see the Northern Lights in Alaska with his wife and possibly his potential dog that he hopes to own soon. Mr. Mussari’s favorite foods are ice cream and Chipotle. Another cool thing about him is that his favorite season is fall and his favorite holiday is Halloween.
As Mr. Mussari is still settling into the Saint Ursula community, make sure to give him a warm welcome!