Alexandra Pacheco Garcia joined the communications and visual arts departments this year as the new Vox Populi advisor and a photography teacher, respectively.

Previously, Garcia worked as a project and production manager, gallery archivist and registrar, studio manager and photography representative. In addition, she taught at Saddleback Community College, was a teaching assistant and instructor at the University of California, Irvine while earning her MFA and worked as a private photography teacher.

Garcia’s said her interest in photography started when she was in high school. 

“I had a really amazing photography teacher,” Garcia said. “I just loved being able to just go into the dark and the magic of taking your film and seeing it develop before your eyes — that’s still a very magical thing for me.”

Garcia said her past experiences working on large publication projects, such as artist monographs, will help her ease into her role as the yearbook advisor, and that she is eager to get an opportunity to be able to interact with students outside of her classroom.

“I think for me, the Yearbook is going to be a big asset in getting to know the broader community and to getting to know my students, particularly the ones that are maybe shy and standoffish,” Garcia said. “I will get to know them this other way and hopefully be a better teacher to them.”

Garcia said she hopes to create a sense of unity between the different departments at school.

“I think as one of the goals that I have as a teacher here, I want there to be relationships and connections between departments so that photography and visual arts isn’t an island onto itself — that we are finding ways to engage and interact with the broader school community,” Garcia said.