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Rebecca A. Zilinski

Biography

Rebecca Zilinski has taught calculus, statistics, painting, crafts, pottery, ecology, water chemistry, and navigation - but none has remained as fascinating to her as art. In art, she says, "There always seems to be a problem to solve or a new thing to learn."

Rebecca knew from a young age that art would be important in her life. She still has her first-grade autobiography in which she announced, "I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I like art and science and math. I don't want to work at IBM." She has not. Instead, she has been an on-board educator and development director for the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater environmental education program, worked in graphic design and magazine production, and assisted traumatically brain-injured people with paintings and other art projects. She is also a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the State University of New York-New Paltz.

Rebecca knows that she can combine teaching and art in a way that "keeps me reaching for more." With a master of arts in teaching in art education, she believes, she can be an effective mentor and role model for young people. "By teaching creativity," she says, "one can give the tools necessary to shape the future, regardless of whether that future relates directly to the arts, science, government, or more."

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