Division chair of communications and fine arts Max Mendez announced that he will be stepping down from his current position to focus on the teaching aspect of his career.
After three years of working in the position, Mendez said he is excited to focus on the students in his classroom.
“I feel like I have done some good work as division chair,” Mendez said. “It’s bittersweet. I have been able to learn a lot in the position, but now I’m ready to fulfill my desire of being in the classroom and connecting with students.”
Throughout Mendez’s life he was always involved in many different experiences that have guided him to this part of his career.
During his education he attended school at Chabot Community College in Hayward California, California State Long Beach, and Eastern Washington University. He currently has a master’s degree in music and vocal pedagogy.
In ’89-’97 he worked as a professional singer in Los Angeles.
“To get by sometimes I had to take any jobs that I could get,” Mendez said. “I worked at Costco passing food samples and I also managed a sheet metal shop.”
Mendez has worked for NIC for almost seven years. “As division chair I run eight academic departments,” Mendez said. The departments Mendez oversees are music, theatre, fine arts, graphic design, journalism, photography, speech, and humanities.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, but I love students and I look forward to spending time with my family,” he said.
Mendez also works as the director of choirs. Cardinal Choral, which consists of 60-80 singers and has a mixture of faculty, staff, students and community members who all participate as well as Chamber Singers which consists of 24 singers, and Jazz Co. which has 14-18 singers.
“I enjoy teaching music,” Mendez said. “Some issues that I face though are that some students either like me or they don’t, but if you are willing to show up on time, be respectful and do the best that you can, then you and I will be on good terms.”
Even after all the time that he devotes to his career he still has time for more. As chair of the annual symposium “Cardinal Connections” Mendez has creative dreams for the future.
Mendez said that he excited to be running Cardinal Connections this year as it all about the spark of creativity.
“I felt the idea of creativity is somewhat bound by the arts,” Mendez said, “but I also see creativity in other disciplines and other fields and I felt that was something worth exploring: how creativity crosses discipline.”
He said that he is in hopes that he will get to chair the committee next year as he has big plans for the symposium.
“Dream big,” Mendez said. “My goal is for students to dream their biggest dreams instead of settling for careers that they don’t really care about. I feel NIC is where students should and can explore their biggest dreams.”
Overall Mendez said he is ready to begin his new journey.
“I really enjoy the energy of students and I want to support those students with their goals. I’ve loved my position, but I feel I will be even more in love with the time I will be devoting to my students.”
