1. March 14, 2015
To Whom It May Concern:
I have had the pleasure of working with Alicia Simon as her supervisor since she accepted the position
of Art Teacher at New York Military Academy in the fall of 2014. During this time, I have been
immensely impressed with Lish’s professional integrity, inventiveness, and enthusiasm, which combine
to make her quite simply the best art educator I have encountered during my professional career.
Simultaneously, Lish’s unfailingly positive attitude, sense of humor, and genuine caring make her a
wonderful mentor and colleague. One of the many tragedies in the impending demise of NYMA is the
fact that exceptional teachers such as Lish will be prevented from continuing the task to which they have
dedicated themselves with such heart and self-sacrifice. At the same time, I can only marvel at the
difference she has already made in the lives of her students at the NYMA community, and celebrate the
fact that she will continue to make a difference for the young people lucky enough to have her as a
teacher at her next school.
Lish’s teaching schedule this year has included a full load of High School Studio Art and Middle School
Art classes. In addition, in the spring semester she has taught a Life Skills class to eighth-graders, and
has been in charge of preparing the NYMA yearbook. She has been fully autonomous when it comes to
developing the curricula and teaching approaches for all of her classes, which, in the case of the Life
Skills class, has meant fashioning from scratch a course she had never taught before. Lish has met all of
these challenges head-on, and with remarkable success. Her thoroughly student-centered pedagogy
makes her classroom a vibrant place of learning, characterized by curricular rigor and high expectations.
At the same time, her inventive, supportive, and empowering approach to teaching allows her students to
explore their creativity in a safe and nurturing environment. During my many observations of her
classes, I have encountered students hard at work, challenging themselves on projects designed to allow
them to discover their hidden talents, and simply having an enormous amount of fun. Lish has also made
it possible for the whole community to share in the creativity of her students, as she is constantly finding
ways to increase the visibility and impact of the art program through collaboration with other schools,
interdisciplinary integration with other departments, and by displaying her students’ artwork in common
spaces and ad hoc art shows. The effect of this on the rather dreary and down-at-heel military school
environment at NYMA has been enormous, with students, faculty, and staff joining in the celebration of
the artistic talent and creativity around them.
From the perspective of a school administrator and supervisor, Lish is a dream employee. Her
professional standards are uncompromising, and her collaborative approach to fulfilling her duties is
exceptional. In an independent boarding school environment such as this, both qualities are invaluable,
as Lish can always be relied to complete her own teaching and out-of-classroom tasks cheerfully and to
the best of her ability, but also to be the first to volunteer when a colleague’s classes or extracurricular
New
York
Military
Academy
Mika
Saarela
Dean
of
Academics
78
Academy
Avenue,
Cornwall-­on-­Hudson,
NY
12520
Tel.:
845
534
3710
msaarela@nyma.org

2. duties need covering due to illness or other reasons. Lish acts as the Academic Advisor for five students
in grades ten through twelve, and the close connections she has forged with her advisees, and the effort
she has put into learning about their academic and social needs have allowed her to fulfill also that role
in an exemplary fashion. Her timely, thorough, and sensitive communications with the parents of both
her students and advisees stand as a model of how parental contacts should be handled.
Even with all of her professional excellence I have attempted to describe above, Lish’s most impressive
quality as an educator lies in her genuine sense of caring for her students and colleagues. The fact that
her students demonstrate such creativity and enthusiasm for artistic discovery is due to Lish’s ability to
relate to them in an unforced and natural way, creating an exceptional rapport with them and making her
love of art highly contagious. At the same time, she has become much more than a teacher to many
students, as they know they can approach her with any problems they may be encountering, whether
academic or social. I was again reminded of this fact only a couple of weeks ago, when a ninth-grade
student chose her, out of all of the adults on campus, as the one person with whom he was comfortable
enough to reveal having being targeted for bullying by a group of his peers. The fact that Lish’s
approachability and warmth were a force powerful enough to break through the “code of silence” that
for far too long has permeated the residential environment at the school speaks volumes. Her kindness
and sensitivity in reassuring the student in question, while allowing the administration to finally address
the issue, were a textbook example of how an educator should handle a situation such as this.
Lish would be a tremendous asset for any community of learning. Her expertise, creativity, and
enthusiasm for art education are unquestionable, and her continual quest for professional excellence
equips her well for meeting the challenges of any type of educational setting. But what truly sets Lish
apart is her genuine caring and warmth, coupled with an instinctive ability to relate to young people and
to earn their trust, all of which combine make her a true educator in the broadest sense of the term. I
recommend her enthusiastically and without reservations.
Sincerely.
Mika
Saarela
Head of Upper School