Hello. I’m Paul Mendel.

I’m an Associate Professor of Art here at Bergen Community College. Welcome to Bergen!

Bergen’s got really an exceptional art program. We’re well funded. We’ve got good faculty. We’ve got good facilities. We offer a very strong program in art.

I think the program that we have here at this community college rivals probably any program you’d get at any of the fine art schools in this area. We have a full-time faculty, who are all practicing artists who are active in their own field. They are exhibiting artists, and they are good teachers.

There’s an interesting duality to our program. On the one hand, we emphasize strong skills in problem solving and critical thinking. Then we couple that with strong skills in technological areas. Those two things work extraordinarily well—extraordinarily well—together.

Hi. My name is Melinda, and I’m a student in Life Drawing, and welcome to Bergen Community College.

Actually, I was really hesitant about coming to BCC because it’s a community college, but when I came here, the instructors were very professional. They really knew what they were teaching. They were a lot more demanding than I’ve had in other classes, and I feel like I learned a lot more than I would have in a normal three-credit class.

This is kind of like a freehand thing. Off the top of my head, I just put together some basic objects. Actually, I’m new here, so I’m just learning the program right now. So, I’m just trying to put a little robot here.

What’s the name of this program?

XSI, SOFTIMAGE. It’s actually like, I think, it’s like one of the best in the business, I think it is. They made like the Matrix with it a couple of good PS2 games with it.

Our students leave here really well prepared to either transfer on to a four-year school or to enter the workforce.