Instructors
Art Instructors
Jenn Scott
Jenn Scott – Art Department Lead
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2021
Jennifer Scott has been working in K-12 art classrooms for 13 years in California, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Prior to working as an art educator, she lived in New York City working as a design assistant at a fashion company called Marchesa. She works in many different mediums, but with a focus mainly on fiber arts and sculpture. She is an adventurer, always looking for new experiences near and far. Jenn shares her life with her husband, two young children, and the best dog in the world.
Joe Thomas
Joe Thomas – Art Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2015
Joe Thomas is a big city teacher who moved to Paso Robles and became a farmer. The farm he shares with his wife, Leslie, is home to a vineyard, fruit and nut trees and an extensive family of rescued animals. Leslie’s passion is horses while Joe’s is Siberian Huskies. The name of his farm is Fat Goat Farm and the name of their non-profit is From the Heart Rescue. Whether it is Tintoretto the Alpaca or Grahammy the Goat, they provide him constant inspiration for his paintings and drawings. Joe continues to teach drawing, graphic design, and painting to children at Paso Robles Youth Arts Center.
Tiffany Lang
Tiffany Lang- Art and Creative Enrichment Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2023
Tiffany has taught throughout the county teaching in a variety of philosophies, to include Reggio Amelia inspired, Montessori and classical to name a few, and has since worked with students from the age of 6 months through high school! She comes to Youth Arts with a continued passion to teach the young people of our community. Here she feels she can help students discover and explore some of their own passions in a safe and nurturing environment that also supports her creative spirit.
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Tiffany was born and raised in Northern California. She started her life here on the central coast in 2002 when she transferred to Cuesta College waiting for her acceptance to Cal Poly in 2003. While at Cuesta College, she realized that she wanted to be a teacher. Lucky for her Cal Poly has a school for that! Her studies at Cal Poly were supposed to lead her to become a high school agriculture teacher but plans changed in her senior year. After graduating in 2006 Tiffany returned to Cuesta College to continue her education in Early Childhood Education. This, she discovered, was where her passion to teach was.
Dance Instructors
Amanda Gonzalez
Amanda Gonzalez – Dance Department Lead
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2001
In 2002, Amanda moved to New York City and enrolled in the Joffrey Ballet School, while also dancing in other studios in New York, including Broadway Dance Center, Ballet Academy East, and Steps on Broadway. Amanda has taught ballet and jazz classes since the Youth Arts opened and hopes to teach as long as possible.
She says that children are her favorite part of the Youth Arts program because of the joy they bring to the arts, with their creativity and passion for what they do.
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Amanda started dancing in 1986 at the age of three at Petaluma School of Ballet, strengthening her knowledge and abilities in ballet and jazz. At age 14, she and her family moved to San Miguel. Amanda started dancing at Class Act in Paso Robles, where she continued to study both ballet and jazz. In high school, she was a part of the advanced dance class. Thereafter, she joined the Civic Ballet in San Luis Obispo.
Helena Higuera
Helena Higuera – Dance Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2024
Helena is the new hip hop teacher here at the Paso Robles Youth Arts. She started her dance journey at Paso Robles Youth Arts center as a student at just five years old and she has loved it ever since. She has taught hip hop at Main Street Dance Company and assisted in classes many times at Paso Roble Youth Arts. The Youth Arts Center has always been my second home so to be able to teach it’s such an exciting experience and I am very thankful to have this opportunity to teach kids dance.
Music Instructors
Kathryn Teale
Kathryn Teale – Piano Department Lead
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2013
Kathryn Teale comes to Paso Robles Youth Arts Center with something pretty simple – a deep love of music and a passion for sharing it with others. Her goal is to teach her students a strong foundation of truly understanding music through music theory and reading music, but also to empower them to create their own music and discover their own passion and joy for piano. She believes strongly in developing the artistic spirit when learning music, “It’s never just about the notes on the page, but how we bring them to life and tell a story.” Kathryn has seen first-hand the effect music has in the lives of her students. It is these experiences which motivates her to use creative approaches to teach her students as a class, while also ensuring each student is learning to the best of their ability.
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She is honored and humbled to be part of such an amazing organization as Paso Robles Youth Arts Center. When she is not teaching, you can find her cooking food with her husband and two daughters, enjoying a podcast or with her nose buried in a good book.
Sarah Blick
Sarah Blick – Violin Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2024
Sarah is a classically-trained violinist with a fiddler’s heart with over 15 years of professional experience. After graduating from Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, she pursued music full-time as a studio musician, songwriter, and performer in genres ranging from Classical to Blues to Bluegrass to Rock before undertaking a three year national tour with her Americana duo Sugar Still. Once the duo toured through the Central Coast, she was hooked and has been living in Paso since 2021. As a teacher, Sarah believes in a strong technical foundation as well as having fun, as evidenced by her willingness to play just about anything. Her current projects include wedding performances, studio recordings, and rocking out with the local bluegrass/Americana group Bremen Town and “y’allternative” Nashville band The Cancellations.
Robyn Saxer
Robyn Saxer – Voice Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2022
Robyn teaches primarily Voice and Musical Theater at Youth Arts. She believes we are all musical by nature, and her intention is to support the full potential growth of the “musical seeds” within each of her students. She teaches Piano/Keyboards, Voice, Guitar, Ukulele, and French Horn around San Luis Obispo County and online. She holds a B.A. in Drama from UC Irvine (class of 2006) with Honors in Musical Theatre and Dramatic Criticism, Literature, and Theory. She was raised in a musical family and has a lifetime of performance experience, as well as 25 years of teaching experience in music, theatre, and nature connection education. Robyn is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with two SLOcal bands: Zen Mountain Poets and The Loving Mosh.
Simon Salcedo
Simon Salcedo – Guitar Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2023
Simon has been involved in music his entire life. Starting with playing classical violin in grade school, and eventually with the SLO youth symphony orchestra in 2010. Entering his freshman year of high school at Atascadero High in 2012, Simon took an “Intro to Guitar Class.” From there, inspiration struck. He went from learning basic first position chords, chord progressions, and even reading tablature, most of the time being away from the class itself. By the next year, he became a Teacher’s Aid for the class, assisting fellow students with the curriculum he learned the year prior. He continued a self taught approach from then up to now, and is well versed in musical genres ranging from classical and blues, to hard rock and modern metal.
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Getting to connect and assist in the discovery of musical expression for students is an honor and a privilege for him. He believes that every student has a voice that can’t always be expressed verbally. Simon strives to help students unlock their hidden potential, giving them the tools and structure that are needed to ignite the creative fire within.
Theatre Instructors
Violet Bush
Violet Bush – Theatre Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2024
Violet Bush is an alumni here at the Paso Robles Youth Arts Center. As a former student, she was involved in classes such as theater, dance, glee, and band.Currently a kindergarten teacher at the Boys and Girls club, she is so happy to be teaching theater/ musical theater at Paso Robles Youth Arts Center. Her passion is working with children, and sharing the magic of performing arts!
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Charlie Charm
Charlie Charm – Theatre Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2024
Charles Charm is an actor and improvisor. Charles has performed all across Sacramento and San Luis Obispo. He started doing improv comedy at Comedy Sportz Sacramento where he performed all ages competition style improv comedy shows twice a week, while also performing in musicals and plays. He currently owns and operates Top Grade Comedy Theater in Atascadero, where he teaches improv comedy to adults and produces comedy shows across the county.
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Charles holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Cal Poly where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He lives in Paso Robles, with his wife Nikki and their two cats, Joan and Kona.
Claire Edmonds
Claire Edmonds – Theatre Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2023
Claire Edmonds is a freelance theater director whose work has been seen in New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Cincinnati and other cities around the US. Claire recently joined the Paso Robles Youth Arts staff as director for their 2023 production of The Wizard of Oz, and looks forward to directing future productions. Claire holds an MFA in Directing for Theater from the UCLA school of Theater Film and Television, and a BA in theater with Directing Honors from UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts. She is an AHS greyhound. claireedmonds.com
Creative Enrichment Instructors
Tiffany Lang
Tiffany Lang- Art and Creative Enrichment Instructor
Started at the Youth Arts in: 2023
Tiffany has taught throughout the county teaching in a variety of philosophies, to include Reggio Amelia inspired, Montessori and classical to name a few, and has since worked with students from the age of 6 months through high school! She comes to Youth Arts with a continued passion to teach the young people of our community. Here she feels she can help students discover and explore some of their own passions in a safe and nurturing environment that also supports her creative spirit.
More
Tiffany was born and raised in Northern California. She started her life here on the central coast in 2002 when she transferred to Cuesta College waiting for her acceptance to Cal Poly in 2003. While at Cuesta College, she realized that she wanted to be a teacher. Lucky for her Cal Poly has a school for that! Her studies at Cal Poly were supposed to lead her to become a high school agriculture teacher but plans changed in her senior year. After graduating in 2006 Tiffany returned to Cuesta College to continue her education in Early Childhood Education. This, she discovered, was where her passion to teach was.