Cindy Ruenes, BA, BSN - UC Berkeley, Columbia

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Cindy Ruenes has been involved with the Community Conservatory over the past five years in a variety of ways.  She has two children who are students at the Conservatory.  She began taking classical guitar lessons in January 2006.  In addition, Cindy has played a key role in the Neighborhood Notes Program.  She helped to develop and expand the program with the Community Conservatory’s Program Director, Brian Pearson.   She is now the Program Coordinator for Neighborhood Notes. 

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Exercise Physiology in 1983.  She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Columbia University in New York City in 1987.  She has worked in a variety of settings as a registered nurse, including hospitals, a wellness center and a home infusion therapy company.  She recently received her School Nurse Certification and has been working as a substitute school nurse in the Central Bucks School District.

She has worked as a volunteer for Art Goes to School for the past six years, teaching art appreciation and art history to children in the Central Bucks School District.  She spent four of those six years managing this volunteer-staffed organization.

Cindy has a passion for learning.  She has taken art classes in drawing and oil painting from several local artists over the past few years.  Her desire to rediscover her ancestral roots prompted her to study Italian, which she now teaches to young children.   Similarly, her informal experience with “folk” guitar since the age of eight and her appreciation for classical guitar inspired her to begin music lessons at the Community Conservatory. 

Cindy and her physician husband have nurtured their children in their value of “giving back” which they have done as a family in West Africa as well as more locally.  To date, she continues to be engaged in collecting materials-school supplies, books, clothes-for schools and orphanages in West Africa.

Cindy enjoys working with the Neighborhood Notes program and values the importance of the program in providing a combination of lessons in the arts and mentoring to at-risk youth in the Greater Delaware Valley.