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Our Director
Maria Isabel Martinez or
Ms.Bel,
as she is affectionately called by her students, is the founder and
director of
Spanish All Year
Round, Inc,
formally known as
“Westbury
Language Center.” She is
originally from Colombia and arrived in New York at the age of 19.
Ever since she was fourteen she has dedicated her time to working on
community projects. In college,
Ms.Bel
intended to pursue a career in social work. While taking a course
on multicultural education,
Ms.Bel
came across Dr. Josie O’Neill who inspired her to become a teacher,
and later on became her mentor. She began her career at Hicksville
Public Library, where she founded 1991 the Library Spanish Program
that is still up and running. In 1993 she became the k-6 Spanish
teacher for Westbury Friends, while being the Spanish
interpreter and translator for Hicksville School District.
After graduation from SUNY “Old Westbury” in 1995,
Ms.Bel
became a Kindergarten Dual Language Teacher for Bay Shore
School District until 2001. On December 2000,
Ms.Bel
opened the doors to Westbury Language Center on a part
time basis until forced to take a sabbatical to finish her Masters.
With a smile on her face she confesses to have almost a Masters (12
graduate credits from NYU in Linguistics and 18
credits from Queens College in Spanish Linguistics and
Literature). She insists that is the only unfinished business that
has allow her to fulfill her dream.
Today the Center serves an average of 350
students a year ranging from age Six months to 12 years of age. The Center serves around
575 students through the
Español sobre ruedas
(one of the Center’s outreach programs that bring Spanish into
public and private schools). In addition to our Spanish classes,
with the support of the State and the
Westbury Public Schools,
we offer English as a Second Language Program to about 220 adults in
our community.
Ms.Bel
enjoys the diversity of her staff. Her teachers represent almost
every corner of the Spanish-speaking world and they are a great
example of the kind of treasure that you will find at the center.
The teachers are native speakers who are knowledgeable about their
topic, adept at teaching children, and enthusiastic about sharing
language and culture. |
