“It was old, an OLD barn, and we had classes there”
Reminisces Erika Bonet, the head of the Art Department and IB Coordinator
“It was old, an OLD barn, and we had classes there,” reminisces Erika Bonet, the head of the Art Department and IB Coordinator.
With her always-gleaming eyes, Erika Bonet sits in her office, in front of her Macbook in a light navy cardigan. Her devotion to EAC has reached 25 years this August and it still stands firmly as a pillar of EAC’s Art and IB program.
Erika Bonet, an Art teacher
Beginning her work at EAC in August 1998, Erika Bonet is a pioneer of EAC’s Art Department. Her journey in EAC started when a student of hers recommended EAC as a workplace. Although EAC’s Art Department didn’t exist yet, she simply loved the idea that she would have the opportunity to build up the Art Department from scratch, eventually starting to have classes in an old barn. Pressing her lips together, she recalls her first year, “When it was windy, we would have wind inside of the classroom, when it was raining, rain would leak inside. The tables were old tables that someone donated to EAC, there were not enough chairs for all students, and there was a roof, but no ceiling so we could see the ceramic covering. There was nothing proper for the arts.”
From this nature-like environment, Erika Bonet built up the Art Department that did not exist. Today, other than empowering younger and newer teachers, she takes roles as a Visual Arts Foundation (elective subject) and an IB Visual Arts teacher for high schoolers. To this day, she has been stretching her power to enlarge the Art Department more and more to ease and improve EAC students’ Art journey.
Erika Bonet, an IB Coordinator
Recognizing her versatile abilities to facilitate and create an entire department, EAC invited Erika Bonet to another job: an IB Coordinator. She describes her work, “In order to act as a connector between IB and EAC, communication and organization are the essential skills an IB Coordinator should possess.” Erika works as the person who recognizes the problems and finds the best way of implementing solutions to the examinations. For example, the current distribution of desks during IB exams is a result of years of redistribution and examination of the most suitable test environments for the students.
From this small attribution to communicating with the actual IB center, Erika works as an essential part of EAC, which every single recent EAC student has spent their years a step less burdened, more entertaining, and valuable thanks to her devoted work in the Arts and IB program.
Message to EAC
Erika’s favorite part of the job, she explains, is arts but also the interaction with teenagers. With her mouth curved into a smile, she beams, reviving her thoughts. She describes, “Teenagers, you guys are in your most brilliant phase of life, in terms that you are fresh. You guys believe you can change the world, which is right, amazing for your generation. Teenagers don’t have what grownups have, that is, ‘when does life change, why is life like this…,’ but you are very creative, more than little kids! You can really express yourself through arts and you BELIEVE that you can make things different, which motivates me more. The level of energy you have is amazing.”
With a grin on her face, she playfully adds, “You better make change, (laugh) because this world is awful. Your generation and the future generations have the job of trying to survive in a world that was exploited and overused too much.”
In this lifetime voyage, Erika Bonet believes that Arts is another language, other than English, Portuguese, or Korean, to express themselves and recognize others that are speaking Arts too. She stresses Arts as an extraordinary tool to communicate with the world and an element that every EAC student should carry on with their lives.
Hyelim Yoon
EAC PRESS 