SCAE Spotlight: Jose Rodriguez
Talk about right brain and left brain integration! This month’s SCAE Spotlight subject, computer instructor Jose Rodriguez Jr., is adept at teaching the fine points of computer technology and applications – and he also spends hours in the more abstract realm of making art.
Jose started teaching computer classes for SCAE in August 2017. He teaches Computer Literacy, Computer Applications and Advanced Computer Applications. (He will also be teaching the College & Career Skills course this winter term.)
Before he started working for SCAE, Jose was a teaching assistant at Maine College of Art in Portland, where he earned a Master’s of Fine Art in Studio Art in 2017. Jose earned a B.A. in Liberal Studies, with a concentration in marketing and graphic design, from California State University in 2012. He then started his career as a freelance graphic designer for clients in New York City and Los Angeles. At first, his clients were mostly from the corporate world. “A few years into that, I shifted the focus of my graphic freelance services towards more non-profit work,” Jose says. He quickly landed a position as a lead graphic designer at a major non-profit in L.A. “This was probably the height of my career as a graphic designer,” he says. “After two-plus years in that position, I decided to get my master’s. That’s how I got to Maine.”
Jose, whose grandparents’ fled Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s regime in the 1960s, is a native of northern New Jersey. He currently lives in Sanford, and he calls Maine his “second home.”
Jose says his work at SCAE has been gratifying on several levels. “Teaching at SCAE has given me the opportunity to work with adult learners from all walks of life. It has been an absolute joy helping the younger and older and ‘in-between-ers’ transition toward their professional goals.”
Working for SCAE has also led Jose to embark on yet another educational goal. “Currently, I am also enrolled as a grad student at USM, in their Master of Science program in Adult & Higher Education Administration,” he says. His expected graduation date is December 2019.
Meanwhile, Jose is also a practicing artist who works mostly in “….non-traditional sculpture, installations/graphic art realms,” he says. He is looking forward to participating in two fine art shows that will be sponsored by SCAE in the spring. As Jose says, “Stay tuned!” SCAE feels lucky to have such a multi-faceted staff member. Stay tuned, indeed!