Dear Search Committee:
This letter will serve as a formal recommendation for Ms. Barbara Balchunas in an Art and Design teaching capacity.
As the former Chair of the Communications and Fine Arts Department, I first-handedly had the pleasure of hiring Ms. Balchunas as an adjunct instructor in the Art and Design Program at Centenary College. She has taught as an adjunct instructor in the Art and Design Program and the Fashion Design Program since 2006.
In every regard, she has proved herself to be an enthusiastic, engaging, challenging and excellent teacher; specifically so, in the freshman foundation courses of Drawing I, Drawing II and Two-Dimensional Design. In particular, these fundamental “Art Core” courses have been significantly important, as they introduce the students from 3 related majors (Art and Design, Fashion Design and Graphic Design) to the critical components of the “Elements of Art and the Principles of Design.” Ms. Balchunas has taught these courses with grace, fortitude and creativity. Moreover, she has the great capacity to be a “hands on” instructor, but she is also able to incorporate industry-standard technology, to further initiate and foster her classroom objectives.
In addition, Ms. Balchunas possesses a sensitive ability to communicate with a diverse student population. Throughout the years, she has adapted her teaching methodologies to intuitively understand the Centenary College learning community. Over the years, I have depended upon her skill, initiative and mostly importantly, her strength as a visual communicator.
I am confident that she would serve your institution in good stead in any Art and Design teaching discipline, as she would be an aptly qualified art teacher on the elementary, secondary or college level.
In sum, I give Ms. Barbara Balchunas my highest recommendation.
Please do not hesitate to contact me, should you need any further explanation of her credentials.
Respectfully yours,
Carol Yoshimine, M.F.A
Professor of Fine Arts
Centenary College
400 Jefferson Street
Hackettstown, NJ 07840
To Whom It May Concern:
It is a pleasure to write this recommendation on behalf of Barbara Balchunas. I have known Barbara as both a parent and a colleague for the past twelve years. Her hard work, organizational skills and creativity are an example for all of us who work with her on a daily basis. I am equally impressed by her skills as an artist and as an educator.
Barbara is never satisfied with the ordinary. She constantly strives to present her students with interesting, fun and academically sound lessons. We have worked together on several occasions to present my third grade class with cross-curricular lessons that expanded on and enhanced the standard social studies, science and reading curricula. This occurs not only in my classroom, but throughout the school. An amazing undersea world came to life in my classroom, costumes were created for both Pilgrims and Native Americans during our annual Thanksgiving feast, dinosaurs walked the aisles of the second grade, and seventh and eighth graders got to be Jackson Pollock for the day.
Mrs. Balchunas' hard work also extends beyond the classroom with the annual school art festival and the Sussex County Teen Arts Festival.
Please give Barbara's application your utmost consideration, as I know she would be an asset to any school, as she has been to ours.
Sincerely,
Marie McKeever
Teacher
Immaculate Conception Regional School
To Whom It May Concern,
I sought out the help of Barbara Balchunas this summer for private drawing lessons. I am going into my senior year in the fashion design program at Syracuse University and felt I needed some extra help with my drawing skills. I contacted her through Centenary College back in the early spring and Barbara remained in contact with me through the semester to ensure we were still on for tutoring in the summer. Her prompt and continual responses this early in the conversation helped me feel confident she would be very professional and relatable during sessions.
Barbara was immediately able to identify my skills and areas that were lacking. From there we developed a plan that incorporated both what I wanted to work on and what she believed I needed help with. We worked together to improve my fashion model’s bodies, their poses and developing an illusion of movement and motion within the drawings. The tricks and clues she provided for perfecting different body parts or poses actually made sense. This was the first time someone had been able to break down the forms for me to the point where it just becomes a routine motion. I truly saw a difference in my work after the first week with her.
We also worked on a line quality and painting techniques. Barbara was full of references for examples about what she was explaining. Sometimes she would bring in books and her own work or she would suggest I look someone up for the next time. Barbara is a professor who really cares about her students and seeing them succeed. She is a wealth of knowledge and talent in her field. After working with her this summer, I feel confident going into my final design year that my drawings will actually communicate what it looks like in my head.
With Barbara’s talent, knowledge, upbeat personality and love for the arts, any student would be lucky to have her.
Sincerely,
Samantha Schaible
