Alumni Return as Conservatory Teachers

Sophie Bradecich

For years the only requirement for Conservatory teachers was experience in the arts. According to new requirements by the state, teachers are now required to get their Career and Technical Education (CTE) Credential. Many teachers do not have the time for such a large commitment in addition to teaching their classes, and as a result, have left their jobs at OCSA. In their place, many alumni have returned.

Ballroom Conservatory Director Robert Porch is hopeful that although the CTE Credential is more outside work than many teachers are accustomed to, they will complete it within the allotted time period. Realistically he knows that some will not, and therefore they will have to stop teaching at OCSA within the next few years. Porch believes younger teachers are more likely to go through the credentialing process than more seasoned teachers. “I tell them they have their full artistic career in front of them… they never know when they may need (the CTE),” explained Porch.

Charna Lopez, director of Integrated Arts, has joined Porch and other directors in hiring alumni. She feels fulfillment watching them make the transition from student to teacher and believes their success lies largely in their knowledge of this specific school culture.

Axl Avenido (IA ‘17), a Musical Theater and Integrated Arts teacher, agreed this has given him an edge. “Since I was a student, I understand how an OCSA student works.” Returning to OCSA was not something that was on Avenido’s radar until he was approached by Lopez, but he had an extremely positive and slightly surreal experience in his first few weeks. He admitted there has been some awkwardness being a recent graduate, but his most difficult challenge comes in the form of calling his teachers-turned-colleagues by their first name.

Many other alumni that have returned are those who also had connections to the school after their graduation, or who kept in touch with their teachers and directors. Julian Rymar (IM ‘15) initially returned as a long term sub in a Musical Theater class, where his mother, Karen Rymar, was the assistant director at the time. From there, he took over clarinet classes in Instrumental Music. Even though he has been back at OCSA for two years, he still cannot enter the tower without feeling like a student and is grateful he teaches all of his classes in the DMS (a building that was not there while he was a student).

Topher Medina (IA ‘18) had similar feelings of being caught between being a student and a teacher when he initially returned to OCSA. Although he is elated to be back at OCSA as a conservatory teacher this year, it was not the same story when he returned just a year after his graduation. He remembers feeling awkward while he was a teacher’s aid in 2019, when many of his friends were still students. Medina even cites it as one of the reasons he left this position after only a year.

Most non-alumni faculty have stories from when they first came to OCSA about being amazed but also terrified. Alumni return ready for the anomaly that is Orange County School of the Arts. Even though some students may be apprehensive of having teachers they remember as fellow students, OCSA alumni acclimate extremely well to the culture as well as their new role within it.