Welcome From the Dean
Welcome and thank you for allowing NYFA to provide you an education in the art and craft of visual storytelling. I admire each of you for courageously taking the road less traveled—for pursuing a dream – to express your creativity, hone your technical and performance skills, and potentially launch a career in the film, performance, or visual arts industries.
As Dean of Students, it is my mission to help students successfully complete their studies. I understand that to harness and actualize creative potential and work productively and effectively in and outside the classroom, students need to feel respected, healthy, engaged and socially connected. To best address these “nonacademic” needs, the Dean of Students office and NYFA support services – International Students Office, Veteran’s Affairs, Student Life, and Counseling Services-- work collaboratively to provide resources and policies designed to create a sustain a learning environment that is safe and conducive to students’ professional and personal growth.
To sustain the safety of our campus, as well each student’s successful completion of the program, I urge all of you to read and abide by NYFA attendance, disciplinary, and institutional policies. These policies, varied in scope, are designed to maintain campus safety, embrace diversity, uphold values of academic and creative integrity, and promote student well being and success.
My office is located at 17 Battery Place, first floor, Room 101. I am eager to meet you and I will do my best to help you thrive at NYFA!
Meet the Dean
Sandra A. Schein, Ph.D.: Prior to assuming her role as Dean of Students, Sandi served for 15 years as director of a college counseling center, teaching students to manage their illnesses, healthfully cope with stress, and effectively communicate their thoughts, feelings, and needs. As a college counseling center director, Sandi most enjoyed her opportunities to create and launch campus wide programs, for students, faculty, staff, designed to foster resilience, destigmatize mental illness, prevent suicide, promote effective leadership, and cultivate understanding and appreciation for diversity and individual differences. Earlier in her career, Sandi directed eating disorder treatment programs in MA and GA, maintained a private practice, and served as clinical director of a nonprofit mental health agency serving disadvantaged children, adults and families. Sandi earned her BA in the Biological Basis of Behavior at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her postdoctoral certificate as Instructor and Fellow at the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry.