Mrs. Cynthia Branco is our beloved Art Teacher and Drama Advisor at North Arlington High School. Many people do not know that she was raised on a farm in Kansas. Mrs. Branco attended Berkeley College to get a marketing and management degree and then transferred to Montclair University to receive a bachelor’s in fine arts with a concentration in drawing/drawing people. Her passion for art developed as it provided her comfort while moving four times during her high school years. She has been teaching art in the district since 2005, starting out as a middle school teacher. She has been teaching at NAHS for 14 years. Her students are her favorite part about working at the high school and they never fail to amaze her!  

Aside from her contributions to NAHS, Mrs. Branco also volunteers at the 9/11 Memorial, enjoys traveling, and spending time with her family. She had always found a passion in art and creating things. After 9/11, she decided that she would go back to school and earn her degree in art, which she did and exceeded with flying colors. 

Mrs. Branco’s favorite sports teams include the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals; her favorite TV shows include The Big Bang Theory, and the Walking Dead; her favorite books include Lord of the Rings Books, World War Z, and Miss Peregrine’s; her favorite movies include Grease, the Star Wars series, The Martian, Mamma Mia, Footloose, Hairspray, and Halloween–most of which have been performed by the Drama club of NAHS under Mrs. Branco’s advisorhip!

Mrs. Branco states that her main goal for her students today is “to learn that art isn’t just coloring pages and hanging out. Art influences everything in our life. I want them to leave school having learned that art is so much more than they think it is when they start my class. I want them to learn to draw, paint, and create from their hearts.” Her personal goals for herself this year are to get traveling again and to reconnect with her friends and family!