Maia Kinsinger Photographs of various types of roses, desert scenes and wildlife fade across Assistant Professor of Communications Maia (pronounced Mia) Kinsinger’s screen saver as she works at her desk, classical music playing softly in the background. Each image provides a window into her life: She has developed a green thumb tending the 50 rosebushes and the gardens that surround her home in north La Verne--the same house she grew up in. She spends plenty of time in her gardens experimenting with drought-tolerant species and practicing organic vegetable gardening. Though La Verne is no longer the citrus haven it once was, her backyard is full of a variety of citrus and other fruit trees. She also vacations at her small cabin near Landers, where she experiments with propagating drought-tolerant and native plants from seed. Among many other plants, she is growing at least 10 different varieties of eucalyptus trees there. And she loves capturing digital snapshots of her surroundings. The neatly stacked books on software and graphic design that top her desk and fill her bookshelves also reflect her teaching interests and her tendency to “tinker.” Post-it notes adorn her monitor with long lists of things to do. “I always have a project, or two or three,” she says laughing. Besides reading books on software, preparing for class and helping her students, her other projects are mostly home-based. She redecorates at least one room in her house each summer. Her tinkering has allowed her to learn painting and basic plumbing, carpentry and electrical skills, as well as the arts of sewing and re-upholstery. She recently automated the lights in her home and strung retired Christmas bulbs around her backyard. “It looks like a fairyland in my backyard,” she says laughing. She also loves to watch Monday Night Football, usually accompanied by a homemade pizza with friends. Health-conscious cooking, especially improving fatty recipes, has become another favorite pastime. A morning person she typically wakes between 4 to 5 a.m. and begins her day, sometimes with a walk through what she calls the “lions and tigers and bears” trail near her home. Then she gets to work preparing for classes before most people are even out of bed. Exercise has always been a part of her life. Her family got a pool when she was 7 and from then on she was constantly in the water. She started swimming competitively by age 11 and at 16 was named one of the top 10, 50-yard freestyle swimmers in the nation. A graduate of La Verne’s Bonita High School where she worked around her four-hour swim schedule, she played in the jazz band and participated in student governance. She decided to graduate high school and leave her hometown a year early to attend UCLA. Los Angeles was the big city, a place far away from familiar faces of small-town La Verne. “As kids, we would walk through the orange groves and ride horses all around San Dimas Canyon, so growing up in La Verne was a wonderful thing. We went barefoot all the time, sometimes stepping on ‘puncture vines,’ but we never wanted to wear shoes. I wanted to leave La Verne after I graduated because it seemed like I knew everybody in town,” she says. “During college, I started teaching swimming and managing the city pool in Claremont during the summer months. My parents said, ‘Oh you’re so good at teaching, why don’t you become a teacher?’” She had initially been interested in studying film at UCLA, as she loved putting together slide shows of photographs set to music, but she could not apply to the film school until she was a junior. She thought her parents had the right idea and transferred to Cal State Northridge, where she majored in liberal studies. She graduated early from college with California Teaching Credential, and began teaching elementary school when she was just 21. She taught several grades, with a fifth- and sixth-grade combination class her favorite. “I still keep track of some of my kids,” she says, adding that one of her former students is now her accountant. “I really enjoyed teaching elementary school, but it was a lot of work and difficult over the summers without getting paid.” She spent the summer of 1986 working at a health club in Orange County to make ends meet. It was the year after she had purchased her first Macintosh computer. The company was wasting money by outsourcing graphic design projects until she carried her computer into the office and showed her boss what could be done in-house. “Then the director of marketing started asking me, ‘Can you do this?’” she says. “It was perfect for me because I was now able to express my artistic side. I was always fascinated with color, design and shapes. Before I knew it, the CEO of the company noticed my talents.” She purchased the first edition of QuarkXPress for the company in 1987 and went on to build its graphic design department, abandoning her career as an elementary school teacher. It wasn’t until 1999 that she returned to the classroom. A brochure advertising basic Quark classes at Cal Poly, Pomona inspired her and she was asked by the University to develop and teach an advanced certificate program in graphic. “I jumped at the chance to return to teaching and combine my two loves,” she says. And when Mike Laponis, professor of communications, happened to take one of her classes, she discovered new prospects awaited her at La Verne. Beginning as a part-time faculty member in 2001, she taught courses in multimedia and graphic design. After receiving a full-time position in 2002, she has since developed the multimedia concentration for the communications department and teaches and advises multimedia, journalism, television and public affairs majors. “It is wonderful teaching here at La Verne and the students are great,” she says with enthusiasm. “I really enjoy my job.” One thing you’ll learn after talking with Maia, she’s always busy and looking forward to the next challenge. RETURN TO FACULTY LISTHome.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0