Churchill alumn Julia teaches art at Churchill

Julia Romano took a gap year before attending college. Now she teaches at Churchill.

When Julia Romano, 25, was a senior at Churchill, she applied to college “because that’s what everyone else was doing so that’s what I was doing too,” she said in a recent interview at the Churchill Middle School art room. She applied to 12 schools, which resulted in 11 acceptances and one wait-listing. After a few weeks at a college in New Hampshire, however, Julia realized that she had made a mistake and dropped out. Instead, she spent her first year after high school working in retail and pondering future career plans.

“I gained a lot of responsibility and independence,” Julia says about her time as a retail employee. Adult life also sparked a desire and motivation to obtain higher education and focus on art. She had friends at Manhattanville College and became interested in the school’s strong programs in art and education. When her acceptance letter from Manhattanville (the only college she applied to) arrived Julia was very excited.

“I was hungry for new challenges,” she says. During her freshman year at Manhattanville, Julia was enrolled in The Higher Education Learning (HELP) Program, an individualized support program where she worked with a tutor who helped her with papers and essays. After her freshman year she did not need the Help Program, which costs extra, anymore. Overall, she had a rewarding college experience.

“My grades were much better in college than in high school, she says. She is dyslexic and had to work very hard, and credits the solid foundation built at Churchill for her success mastering her college courses. Having never studied any foreign language prior to college, Julia took two language courses and studied art history for a semester in Barcelona, Spain where she also enrolled in an intensive Spanish language course.

Dennis McConkey, Churchill’s head art teacher, has been a mentor for Julia and remembers her as a nine-year old. “She was the kind of kid that you knew was going to become a good adult,” Dennis says. In addition to being a serious student, he remembers her artistic skills. Julia and many other Churchill students are talented artists, but they are not fully aware of the significance of their creative gifts until they are in a different learning environment, he says. Julia and Dennis share values regarding teaching and art. “She often says exactly what I was going to say,” he says, "I’m passing on the torch.”

Julia recalls Dennis telling her early on that one day she’d make a good art teacher. During her senior year in college, Julia applied for teaching jobs at various LD schools in New York City. After she graduated in the spring of 2010, an assistant science teacher opening materialized at Churchill elementary school. A year later, she landed a position as middle school art teacher. She enjoys being back at Churchill and having some of her former teachers as colleague. The feeling is mutual.

“It is funny to have one of my former students as a colleague,” Dennis says.