Alexandra Nava-Baltimore '20 | Poly Prep School Brooklyn

Alexandra Nava-Baltimore ’20

Alexandra Nava-Baltimore ’20 incorporates art into everything she does,” said Visual Arts Department Chair Laura Coppola ‘95. “With her deans, she crafted a senior year schedule that reflected her passions. She furthered her interest in painting and drawing in AP Studio and was in David Higham’s Stagecraft class. Alexandra always looked for opportunities beyond the classroom, beyond her responsibilities, to ensure that she’d learn in a hands-on way whenever she could.” She studied fashion and photography in Paris during one summer and took beautiful headshots of actors and crew for Poly productions that were displayed in the theater hallway. She also curated a ‘spotlight’ installation of artworks by seniors for the 2019 Winter Art Show. “Alexandra not only designed costumes for Poly productions, but she’s also made her own clothes. So, she really knows how to weave her academic and school-based arts learning into her everyday life,” Laura said. “When I taught her in AP Art History, I was impressed with her focus and her desire to learn more about, analyze, and question the histories and cultures that paved the way for the visual culture in which we are embedded today.”

“Of the many things that impress me about Alexandra” said Poly’s yearbook advisor David Reid, “one that stands out is how hard she worked to achieve her vision. She knew what she wanted the yearbook to be, and worked relentlessly, often entirely behind the scenes and without full recognition or thanks, to make it happen. When she started with yearbook, her vision was well beyond what the book had been, but that did not daunt her at all, and, in a short time, she had brought it there! Especially impressive is that one of her biggest motivations in working on the book was knowing that it would bring happiness to others to see themselves in a great yearbook, to have it personalized to their own class and friends, to have their memories down on paper, and to have a yearbook that really captures the spirit of the school.”

Arts

More Poly People

Alumni

Akili Tommasino ’05

Akili Tommasino ’05 studied art history at Harvard and founded the Prep for Prep/Sotheby’s Art Academy in 2017 “to give high school students of color an earlier window into the art world.”

Alumni

Chris Davenport ’91

Chris Davenport ’91 has been a reporter for The Washington Post since 2000 and covers the defense and space industries for the Post‘s financial desk.

Alumni

Diahann Billings Burford ’90, P’20

Diahann Billings Burford ’90, P’20 was the second girl to serve as president of Poly’s Student Government. “Diahann was a force of nature,” recalled Paul Raso, retired science teacher and former Student Government advisor.