Stacey Dunbar
Stacey Dunbar is a certified elementary educator and English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor. She received her BS in Early Elementary Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and taught pre-kindergarten, first and second grade students for five years. During her time as a teacher, she developed a Spanish immersion program in her classroom where all students learned to read, write and speak in both English and Spanish. Her success developing a Spanish immersion program led her to begin an educational consulting business where she trained numerous school districts to develop or improve their Spanish immersion, bilingual or ESL programs. She is now the proud mother of two boys and is thrilled that her sons have been a part of the Aprende con Amigos family.
Through her experiences as a teacher and consultant, Stacey Dunbar observed first-hand how children learn differently, have individual interests and excel in different areas. Therefore, she believes the educational approach at Aprende con Amigos should directly reflect, support, and implement a variety of philosophies, methods and strategies to meet the needs, interests and abilities of all students. Applying one philosophy or approach limits the ability to provide a well-balanced learning environment that meets the strengths and needs of all of its children.
“Tuly” Gertrudis Novoa Garcia
Tuly Novoa is a licensed preschool teacher from Venezuela with extensive experience in early childhood education. She has worked with children in various capacities such as summer camps, in-home child care, tutoring and Spanish immersion programs. As a mother of three, she believes that the most important gift a parent can give to their children is an education. Tuly and her husband have focused on teaching the joy of education and the importance of bilingualism. She is passionate about working with children and enjoys seeing how they progress every day. She is excited to get to know the families of Aprende con Amigos and looks forward to sharing the best of herself with them. We’re happy to have her as our Mamá Teacher for the Caballito group!
Brenda Ferrusca
Brenda was born in California, but has spent most of her life in Portland, Oregon. She’s been a childcare teacher for three years. She’s excited to join the Aprende family as she believes in the value of bilingual education. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her two daughters, Delyiah (age 7) and Leilani (3) as well as exploring the outdoors and relaxing at home with her family.
Daniela Pozo
My name is, Daniela Pozo, well is born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, has 4 brothers who 2 live in Aruba and 2 in Colombia, currently lives with her mother and son in Beaverton Oregon approximately 2 years and 2 months. I am very happy to be here and grateful to his country for give me a better quality of life for both me and my son, being the eldest daughter good gave me a purpose to care for and watch over my brothers, as we grew up without a father, but if with my grandparents both mother and father, I worked from the age of 14 to be able to help my mother and continue with my studies, for me , communication is very important because it is where our starts as a person and I think that where there is good communication, everything goes well. It is also very important to be able to Speak two or more languages because it allows you many opportunities in life. In my country I had the opportunity to study education and work with children, since it is very important to teach and apply the acquired knowledge.
Carmen Faria
Carmen Faria is originally from Venezuela but is happy to call Portland home! She enjoys exploring the local area with her husband and two daughters. Carmen believes in the value of bilingualism not only for success in education but to maintain communication with older generations. She is raising her children to be bilingual because she knows it’s important for them to be able to communicate with family members in Venezuela. Carmen comes to Aprende with years of experience providing in-home child care services. Thanks to her warm and caring demeanor, we feel like Carmen is the perfect fit to be the Pollito Mama teacher at our preschool! We’re so happy to have her as a member of our preschool family!
Luisa García
Mi nombre es Luisa García, mama de dos niñas una de 10 años llamada Paula y Elvia de 4 años, soy de Venezuela, Residenciada en Beaverton Oregón desde hace 2 años. Soy Maestra desde más de 10 años en mi país y actualmente en esta hermosa escuela es mi pasión ser maestra ya que a diario aprendemos de los niños y ellos de nosotros.
Vanesa Quintero-Salgado
Vanesa was born and raised in Portland, Oregon where Spanish was spoken at home and English was spoken at school. She holds an Associate’s Degree in General Studies from Portland Community College. Growing up she didn’t understand why both languages couldn’t be spoken in the household and at school. After receiving her Associate’s Degree, Vanessa realized how important it was for her to be bilingual. Vanesa is enlightened by the idea of children from different cultures and backgrounds learning to speak Spanish. She thinks there is a lot to learn from young children. In her free time she enjoys sketching, trying new restaurants and spending time with her family.
Tatiana
Tatiana Sanjines was born in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. She came to the United States in 1984. She has four children that she adores. Tatiana enjoys anything outdoors including: running, walking, hiking, and running marathons. She simply loves nature. Tatiana is so happy to be a part of Aprende and has been working with children for over 20 years.
Olga Barcaz
Olga Rachel, is from Santiago de Cuba and has been in the United States for two years. She attended the Universidad de Oriente of Cuba and graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology. In addition, she has a specialization in communication and interpersonal relationships. Thereafter she worked for two years in special education with middle school students and one year with at-risk youth in a juvenile detention.
She is now finishing up her first year at Aprende con Amigos. Her favorite thing about working at Aprende is to see the joy it brings to students to learn Spanish. The relationships between co-workers and families are also something she values at Aprende.
On her free time, she enjoys salsa dancing and spending time with her family.
Naleska Suarez
Soy de venezuela y actualmente residenciada en esta hermosa ciudad de portland oregon estudie y soy TSU in early childhood education decidi realizarme en esta hermosa profesion porque pienso que cada quien se desenvuelve con mayor facilidad en lo que le apasiona y los ninos son lo mas hermoso del mundo ensenarle sus primeros pasos e iniciarlo en su educacion es de gran provecho para su futuro.
Stacey Dunbar
Stacey Dunbar is a certified elementary educator and English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor. She received her BS in Early Elementary Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and taught pre-kindergarten, first and second grade students for five years. During her time as a teacher, she developed a Spanish immersion program in her classroom where all students learned to read, write and speak in both English and Spanish. Her success developing a Spanish immersion program led her to begin an educational consulting business where she trained numerous school districts to develop or improve their Spanish immersion, bilingual or ESL programs. She is now the proud mother of two boys and is thrilled that her sons have been a part of the Aprende con Amigos family.
Through her experiences as a teacher and consultant, Stacey Dunbar observed first-hand how children learn differently, have individual interests and excel in different areas. Therefore, she believes the educational approach at Aprende con Amigos should directly reflect, support, and implement a variety of philosophies, methods and strategies to meet the needs, interests and abilities of all students. Applying one philosophy or approach limits the ability to provide a well-balanced learning environment that meets the strengths and needs of all of its children.
Recently, Stacey started the ASPEN Comunidad Foundation to better serve and bring equity to families in Portland. She feels strongly about increasing opportunities for underserved populations to have access to education and care to better meet the needs of their families and personal growth. Visit aspencenterpdx.com to learn more about ASPEN Comunidad Foundation and the greater Aspen Center concept.
Teresa Hernandez
Teresa Hernandez-Claudio is California born, but Oregon raised. Teresa’s parents are from Baja California, Mexico. She’s the oldest of her siblings. She is a native Spanish speaker, Spanish was her first language until she started grade school.
Teresa has worked with kids for about nine years, when she first started working with kids she realized how amazing their little brains work and just how great it is to watch them learn and develop, she also loves to make kids feel loved and happy at school.
Teresa has 2 kids of her own with her high school sweet heart, Alexa 8 and Malik 7. Her household is a Spanish speaking home with some English since sadly there is no immersion programs in their district.
When she first started working at Aprende she started off as Floater supporting the teachers and serving snack to the children, she later became the Pollito Teacher. A year later she decided the floating position was best for her schedule. While she was Floater she supported the teachers the most she could and she was able to work with all the kids, which was what she loved the most. Now she’s assistant director the new location, She continues to support our teachers at Irvington and make our children feel happy and welcome to our school family. Teresa is happy to be part of the Aprende family, She’s grown and have learned so much as a teacher, person, and a parent in the wonderful Aprende community.
Norma Moreno
Norma Moreno was born in Mexico and has fond memories from growing up there. After high school, she entered Bachillerato Pedagogico, where she first started her path towards working in educational services. For five years, she worked as a preschool teacher in Mexico. Years later, Norma moved to the US with her husband Fernando and her eldest son Fernando. She enjoyed spending time as a volunteer in her son’s classroom and wanted to continue studying to work towards a career in education. After having her second son named Yari, Norma enrolled at Mt Hood Community College to take English courses and work towards earning her Child Development Associate (CDA) certificate. She applied at head start where she worked as a part time assistant for five years and then worked five more years as a fulltime assistant teacher. She enjoyed the 10 years she worked at the Head start program.
In addition to teaching, Norma is very involved in her community. She’s graduated as a parish health promoter in a leadership program and works to help support other Latinos in her community.
She enjoys being part of the Aprende community where she happily teaches in her first language. We’re glad to have Norma join the team and pleased to see the passion she has for working with preschool children!
Nila Quevedo
Nila Quevedo is from Venezuela and since an early age, has been passionate about educating children. She began working as a teacher in an elementary school in Venezuela when she was 18 years old and at the same time she was also specializing in Intergral Education. In 2006, she moved to Cary, North Carolina due to her husband's work and continued to work in education.
During her time in North Carolina, she worked as a volunteer Spanish teacher at an elementary school, and as a preschool teacher. She is fully qualified in Early Childhood Credential with more than 27 years of experience.
After living in North Carolina for several years, Nila and her family moved to Georgia, where she worked as a Spanish substitute teacher at the high school in Madison County. She also worked as a teacher in a Spanish club at the Madison Middle School. In 2014, Nila and her family moved to Camas, Washington where she began her career with Aprende con Amigos. She also worked at Seton Catholic High School as a Spanish teacher for two years.
The experiences working with children from preschool to high school has been unique; however, working with children of early ages has been her best working experience. She is a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher with a passion for children's learning and care.
Nila has a wide variety of work knowledge involving the traditional preschool as well as the Montessori School. She believes that the quality of education that a person receives early in life is indispensable in bringing out that person's potential and that all children should have access to quality learning and care. Nila is so excited to return and to share all her experience with Aprende con Amigos! Nila is married and has two wonderful children whose ages are 20 and 16. She likes to read, listen to music, and most of all, she loves to dance!
Denisse Alcántara
I am Deniss Alcántara, originally from Sonora, Mexico. I am married and a mother of two sons, Cesar and Leonardo.
I received my Bachelor of Education degree in Sonora and worked for five years in private preschools and five more years in primary schools within the Secretary of Education as an interim teacher.
I like to help and stay in touch with people. I was a volunteer at my youngest son's elementary school for almost four years, I am a volunteer teacher in the Kindergarten Ready program at Rockwood bookstore, and I worked at Los Angelitos kindergarten for four months.
My favorite activity is to go for a walk with my family, and love to visit places in nature, parks, tourist areas, and anything else outdoors.
I had the opportunity to join the great ``Learn with Friends`` family in February 2019 and I am excited to be the math and science teacher this year to share my experience and culture.
Sonia Moreno
Sonia Moreno was born in Mexico City. When she moved to the United States she attended bilingual schools, which helped her maintain fluency in both Spanish and English. She is currently working on her B.A. in child development.
Sonia is fascinated by learning more about how children’s brains function and their amazing imaginations. Her future goals include continued study to become a child psychologist or counselor. In her free time, Sonia enjoys the natural beauty of Oregon, hiking, bowling, salsa dancing and trying different restaurants and spending time with her family.
Claudia Brito
Claudia Brito is originally from Venezuela, I am happy to live in Portland with my family I am married with a daughter and completed a preschool education program in 2007 in Venezuela. I have been working as a teacher since 2005. I love working with children and being in the program is extremely important because Spanish is my first language.
Claudia Moreno
Claudia was born in Pachuca, Hidalgo Mexico and has been living in the Portland area for many years now. In Mexico, she worked for seven years at the Centro Educative Infantile where she completed director’s duties and assisted teachers in the classroom. Upon moving to the United States, she earned valuable experience working at the Mt. Hood Community College Head Start program.
She loves working with preschool children and believes it’s one of the most important times of their school life. She especially enjoys seeing their surprised faces when conducting classroom science experiments. Claudia is fascinated by the day to day progress children show in math class. She is continually amazed by the learning ability of preschoolers. She believes preschool is time for exploration and the perfect age to plant the seeds of learning! We are happy to have Claudia as a member of our faculty.
Maria Macias
Hello! My name is Maria Macias. I was born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico. I live with my daughter in Portland. I love Portland, its beauty, and its parks and I would be happy to live here my whole life.
When I am not teaching, I love visiting farmers markets on the weekends. I also enjoy learning and take classes on a variety of topics including sewing, baking, and cosmetology. Learning is something I am passionate about.
I am excited to be a PM Teacher at Aprende con Amigos because I believe being bilingual expands your world, opens up opportunities, and connects you to wonderful people throughout the world. I look forward to working with your children and sharing my language and culture with them!
Aurora
Coming Soon!
Lorena
Mi nombre es Lorena Ocando, nací en Maracaibo “Venezuela” no he tenido experiencias como maestra, me gradué en otra área, pero me encantan los niños y soy mama de 2 “Avril y Andres” mi experiencia con ellos ha sido increíble; pues llegaron a mi vida uno seguido del otro. Soy muy paciente y cariñosa, espero conseguir el amor de sus hijos”.
