Bloomfield College Alumna Teaching Animation in East Orange School District

By Alicia Cook

Cristina Wulff ‘13 is about to enter her third year as an educator; but she’s not teaching reading, writing, or arithmetic. She is teaching animation to both middle and high school students in the East Orange school district and Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts.

“My responsibilities include writing lessons, preparing for, and teaching, seven different classes a day,” said Wulff, who teaches animation to both middle and high school students. “Each grade is studying a different section of the animation process and each class is a prerequisite to the next grade up.”

Some of these classes include Cartooning, Traditional 2D Cel Animation, Digital 3D Animation, and Storyboarding.

Wulff, who earned her bachelor’s degree in animation from Bloomfield College, also advises an after-school animation club twice a week.

She believes her time at Bloomfield College helped her get where she is today, happy and employed in her desired field.

“Bloomfield College helped prepare me for this job by having professors who taught me the technical skills that I needed to know, in a hands-on fashion,” began Wulff. “The requirement to take an internship class, as well as what was taught in the internship class, were extremely valuable to me. The core classes, like math and literature, also prepared me so much for teaching.”

After graduating from Morris Hills High School, Wulff was awarded both scholarship and financial aid upon being admitted to Bloomfield College. She was impressed with the animation program and wanted to remain in New Jersey. She quickly found a home at Bloomfield College and began to really excel in her classes.

Wulff held down multiple internships that included working on projects, programs, films, and installations with members of the Creative Arts and Technology (CAT) faculty, while attending the College and even after graduation.

“I worked with Professor Laura Nova on ‘Feed Me a Story’ in both New York City as well as at the College,” said Wulff. “I assisted with audio visual work as well as 2D animation for a couple of stories. I also assisted Professor Nishizawa on stop motion puppet animation tests for a film segment.”

In fact, Wulff secured her current job by interning with the previous animation teacher, who had also worked at Bloomfield College, Professor Potuto.

“He was my mentor. I had never considered becoming a teacher until interning with him,” expressed Wulff. “When Professor Potuto passed away, it was a really hard time for me and his students. I contacted the school and ended up subbing for all his classes the rest of the school year then applied for the job, full-time.”

Wulff interviewed and got the job.

“It has been extremely tough filling his shoes, but I believe he, as well as the rest of the CAT faculty and community at Bloomfield College, prepared me.” said Wulff.

This month, the new Center for Technology + Creativity on the Bloomfield College campus will open its doors. This building will help the CAT division remain one of the most innovative programs in the country in fields such as animation, game design, digital video and music technology. The space will provide a new home for students to continue to shatter creative boundaries and develop game-changing work during their undergraduate careers. The new building will also house a green screen filming studio and a painting studio, among other features, bringing the latest in creative technology to young artists’ fingertips.

“It is wonderful that future students are going to have a proper workspace with new technology and high functioning labs,” said Wulff. “This building is very important. I think this is a great upgrade and will no doubt set the students up to learn to the industry’s standards.”

Five years from now, Wulff hopes to still be teaching.

“It is extremely rewarding to be able to share my goal in life with students who share the same passion,” stated Wulff.” I hope to continue building, improving, and growing both my animation program and myself for my students.”

For questions, comments, or inquires please contact Professor Lynne Oddo, coordinator of the CAT Animation Program and the Motion Capture Studio at Bloomfield College.