Student Profile
Maria Teixeira
Technical Theater and Political Science Major, Class of 2007
Hartlepool, England
Maria Teixeira is a woman with no shortage of interests or ambition.
The England native majors in both technical theater and political science while minoring in gender studies for good measure. And she is an active participant in such socially minded organizations as the Johnson Peace Collective, the Womyn's Centre and SERVE.
Maria attended two other colleges before transferring to Johnson State College in fall 2005. What drew her here was the chance to study sound engineering. Dibden Center for the Arts, which is run exclusively by students, has afforded her a wealth of opportunities to work on her craft.
"Jan Herder, the director of Dibden, runs it like a road house," says Maria. "Musical acts and other performers come through, and we get to do it all. We set up the entire sound system, run the board during the show, and then take everything down. It's an incredibly unique learning experience.
"And the names I have in my portfolio are incredible — Al Di Meola, Chick Corea, Grace Potter."
While political activism will always have an important place in Maria's life, she plans on paying the bills by pursuing a career in sound. She is confident that her JSC education will give her a competitive edge.
"I'm so fortunate to have ended up at Johnson," says Maria. "I doubt many technical theater students from other schools are doing the kinds of things I've done."