By: Nell O’Hara
Baltimore School for the Arts boasts many incredible new staff members. Because so many teachers responded to our questions via email, this will be a continuing series in the BSA Muse. Over the next few editions, students can look forward to getting to know BSA’s new teachers and administrators from the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years through brief profiles.
Across all academic and art departments, these teachers will share what they want students to know about them. Our December cycle includes two academic teachers, Ileana Imhoff and Jocelyn Providence, and Assistant Principal Dawn Strickland.
Ileana Imhoff (she/her)
What subject do you teach?
“Spanish I, Spanish III Honors, AP Spanish.”
What has surprised you about teaching at BSA?
“Art is present everywhere, not only it’s displayed in multiple ways throughout the school and social media, but it also seems to be a living thing. I often see students practicing dance moves, singing, or talking about projects in classrooms and hallways. The doodling and drawing, however, has been the most striking thing for me. Students doodle and draw so much more than any other place where I have taught. It’s kind of fun to see how students’ creativity and artistic expression seems to always be at work at BSA.”
What is a fun fact about yourself that you would like students to know?
“I have a double identity. Here in the U.S. and in Baltimore my name is Ileana Imhoff, and I am a Spanish teacher, I am an immigrant, and I am a person of color. In my country, Guatemala, I am Ileana Alonzo. I am a sister, an aunt, a daughter, a cousin, a friend, and my family has a long history in our city, which was built by multiple generations before me. When I am in Guatemala, I am home.”
Jocelyn Providence (she/her)
What subject do you teach?
“Math – so this year, Probability and Statistics and Algebra 1.”
What has surprised you about teaching at BSA?
“I think what has surprised me most is how seriously students take their art. Students here are still students, they’re still kids in a way, but they are very very professional and adult-like in their dedication to their art.”
What is a fun fact about yourself that you would like students to know?
“I played Division I tennis in college.”
Dawn Strickland (she/her/elle)
What is your role at BSA?
“Assistant Principal for Student Support.”
As an alum, what does it feel like to be back at BSA as an administrator?
“It feels totally surreal. Almost like returning home from a very long trip!”
What is a fun fact about yourself that you would like students to know?
“A fun fact is that I danced in the MC Hammer show at Walnut Creek Creek Amphitheater in 1993.”
To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.