Several years into an extended trek through Latin America, I started teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in Salvador, Brazil. I later taught ESOL on San Andres Island, Colombia to both adults and children for three years. After five years of traveling and teaching in South America, I came home to Minnesota and completed an eight month course in teaching Spanish using an accelerated language learning method (The Lozanov Method).  I taught using the method in both the U.S. and Colombia. 

Upon returning again from South America, I attended the University of Minnesota and completed a BA with majors in Spanish, Portuguese and Psychology, and then a Master of Education with an emphasis in cross-cultural training and teaching Spanish as a new language.

Over the past 29 years since returning to the U.S., I have worked as a Spanish and Portuguese interpreter in medical settings and as a Spanish instructor in corporate, school and home settings, teaching both adults and children.

In the summer of 2000 I made the decision to leave my interpreting position at Hennepin County Medical Center and my freelance corporate teaching career to devote my time exclusively to teaching young children and their parents (or care provider). Catalina’s Preschool Spanish is now beginning its twelfth successful year.

I have always enjoyed teaching young people and am constantly thrilled at how quickly they are able to pick up a new language. I also find it rewarding when the adults learning with the children are surprised at how much they are learning.