2005 Distinguished
Alumna
Jan Sofie
B.A. Fine Art, 1991
School of Arts and Humanities
Single Subject Teaching Credential in Visual Arts, 1994
Administrative Credential, Educational Leadership, 2004
School of Education
Director, ArtQuest at Santa Rosa High School
 Ms. Sofie has served as the Director of the innovative ArtQuest at Santa Rosa High School for seven years. This award-winning public school magnet program was created to serve secondary students for whom creativity is paramount.
As the program Director, Ms. Sofie oversees all applications and has helped expand the 11-year-old ArtQuest from 75 students to over 520 students attending from Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties.
She has also been instrumental in increasing the program's offerings from two to seven arts disciplines, including dance, drama, vocal and instrumental music, digital arts, photography, video and visual fine arts. Additionally, Ms. Sofie has taught the Advanced Placement Studio Art portfolio class in ArtQuest for the past ten years, with her students attaining an overall 97% passage rate.
Ms. Sofie has fostered partnerships and joint ventures with a variety of cultural organizations, institutions of higher learning, prestigious art colleges and departments, businesses and community groups. She has written or co-written several successful grant proposals, including the Local Arts Education Partnership grant from the California Arts Council in partnership with the Sonoma County Arts Council and grants from the California Department of Education.
In 1999, ArtQuest won the Jack London Award for educational excellence and was a precipitating reason for a California Assembly Resolution in 2003 proclaiming Santa Rosa High School and ArtQuest as exemplary educational programs.
A driving force behind ArtQuest, Ms. Sofie has proven to be an exceptional educator who is committed to the highest standards of educational excellence and innovation. Her work to provide an arts-centered, highly demanding
and interdisciplinary curriculum is unique in the Northern California region,
and serves as an outstanding curricular model for the nation as well.
ArtQuest is dedicated to the cultivation of community, personal responsibility and discipline, and the development of creative problem solving, critical thinking and judgment skills, which the program maintains are essential not only in the Arts, but also across disciplines and throughout life.
Ms. Sofie recently completed her master's core classes at Sonoma State University and is now finishing her thesis in educational leadership with an emphasis on Arts Education. As a student of Sonoma State University
professor William Morehouse, she was first introduced to the famed artist Christo's work and subsequently worked on both of his and Jeanne-Claude's California projects, Running Fence and The Umbrellas.
| 