Courses Taught: Final Project, Interactivity and Screen Design 2
Education: BFA Computer Arts/New Media, Academy of Art University

Maria has been a creative individual from her early years taking drawing classes in high school and later developing into a new media designer during her study at the Academy of Art University. As a graduate from the New Media/Computer Arts department, Maria is well versed in various art mediums such as – sketching, painting, graphic and web design as well as advanced front-end web development. After graduating, she pursued her career as a freelance designer and worked with clients in a variety of industries on projects which heavily involved the execution of branding and marketing strategy using creative mediums. As the next step in her professional development, she became a team lead in a web development department in a San Francisco based cultural exchange company. There, Maria was able to use her education, professional experience, outgoing personality and multicultural background to work her way up to a Creative Director position. In addition, Maria always has been passionate about sharing her knowledge, so she expanded her responsibilities by taking on a position as a Graphic Design Instructor at a College of San Mateo. Once she was done fulfilling her commitment to the CSM organization, Maria wanted to find a more stable teaching position which led her to the Ex’pression College.