Mikhaila Quezada-Freda, Teaching Assistant, attends The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. She grew up near some mountains in Los Angeles, where she spent most of her time walking dogs, riding bikes, and hiking. In New York, the lack of mountains and the cold weather haven't discouraged her from being outside: even in winter, she commutes on her bike and works at a farmer's market. She works primarily in sculpture and installation, which entails casting with strange materials and using home-improvement techniques. Her apartment is part of her practice, as she uses piles of recyclables as furniture, and makes drawings out of cleaning products on her bathroom wall. She is an Oxbow alumna from OS27, and can’t wait to be back in Napa this summer.
Oxbow opened me up to what was out there in the world to go out and grab, and gave me so much that I take with me everywhere I go, with everything I do.
— Nina Palomba, Spring 2008
I learned to drop all previous assumptions I had about people because I had never met anyone like the other students at Oxbow. For the first time, my peers and their insightful thinking inspired me. For example, during the ‘Einstein’s Dreams’ presentations, I kept looking around the room thinking, I can’t believe all of these students are talking the way I think.
— Sara DeLong, Spring 2010
Our daughter graduated summa cum laude from NYU with a double major in Studio Art and Art History. She is now working for Calvin Klein. She is contemplating getting a law degree and pursuing a career repatriating art objects. She still keeps in touch with several of her Oxbow classmates and they have regular reunions in Manhattan... I would say that Oxbow was the best semester that any of my four children spent in their cumulative 16 years of high school. Our daughter was the right kid, and for the right kid you do a wonderful job. You changed her life. Thank you.
— John Powley, Parent
A School Like No Other