Paola Mizrahi
CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
Paola holds a BA in Psychology from the Catholic University Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela, and a Masters of Social Work from the University of Washington. She has more than 20 years’ experience working with families and children in different positions.
She was Family and Community Engagement Supervisor at Seattle Public Schools, Spanish Preschool Teacher at Hutch Kids Childcare Center in Seattle, and has been leading groups and camps for children since she was 16 years old.
She was born and raised in Venezuela, where she learned not only the rich Spanish Language but also the lively Latin-American culture, based on community values, festive spirit, curiosity and creativity.
She strongly believes that children thrive when they are engaged, motivated, and challenged in a safe environment. Her philosophy for Jump on Languages is based on positive relationships, interactive learning, and celebration of growth.
Meet Our Admin Team
EDDY REIF
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
Eddy has always been passionate about working with kids, from being counselor for youth programs in his home country of Venezuela to serving on the board of Hutch Kids (the day-care affiliated with the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center, SCCA and UW) for six years. Eddy is the co-founder of Jump On Languages and runs the business and administrative side of the program. He was born and raised in Venezuela, and he holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Simon Bolivar University, as well as an MBA from UC Berkeley. His professional career includes experience in brand management at Procter & Gamble, marketing for Venezuela’s largest newspaper, management consulting, and 15 years at Amazon leading product and engineering teams. In January 2021, Eddy decided to dedicate himself full time to the community and to running Jump On Languages. He loves using his business and project management experience to make an impact. He also spends time supporting Seattle Public Schools' COVID protocols at John Stanford International School and teaching project management courses at UW.
nora kaplan
ENGLISH ACADEMIC DIRECTOR, HUMAN RESOURCES
Nora holds a PhD in Discourse Studies, a Masters in TEFL and a BA in English Philology from the University of Salamanca. She has wide experience as a teacher of English and teacher trainer in South America and Spain, where she has been involved in bilingual education and CLIL. She is the founder and academic director of Nora Kaplan Language Centre and is also a researcher at the University of Salamanca.
lorena del pino
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Lorena was born and raised in Mexico City, where she studied communications and filmmaking at Anáhuac University Mexico. After college she moved to New York to pursue a career in the arts, where she studied Musical Theatre and Acting for Film at the New York Film Academy. She has been working with kids as a teaching artist for more than ten years. She is very passionate about early childhood education, and is thrilled to be a part of the team at JOL to share her love for culture and the arts. In her view, there is nothing more fulfilling than being part of a child’s life, to positively inspire them and to see all the wonderful things they are capable of doing when you show you believe in them.
Meet Our Seattle-based Teachers
MARíA ELENA hoveskeland
LEAD SPANISH TEACHER, PRESCHOOL & AFTER SCHOOL
Maria Elena Hoveskelan is a native Spanish speaker from Mexico with experience teaching Spanish as a second language in different Spanish Immersion schools in the Seattle area. She has been working in early childhood education for over 15 years, specializing in the Montessori Philosophy for over 3 years before joining Jump on Languages. Her teaching philosophy is aligned with play-based learning and a mixture of other well recognized approaches that foster independence, self-confidence and the joy of learning while developing critical skills needed for life. She is thankful to be a part of each child's successful educational journey.
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Carolina león montalvo
SPANISH TEACHER, PRESCHOOL & AFTER SCHOOL
LANGUAGE PLAYTIME COORDINATOR
Carolina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Universidad Politécnica Salesiana del Ecuador. She attended Colegio Americano de Quito for elementary and high school, where she started her bilingual education. She has taught English as a second language in Quito-Ecuador and Spanish as a second language in Seattle. She has almost twenty years of experience teaching languages. She loves play and project-based educational approaches as well as discovering new things with the students every day.
noelia arzán vázquez
SPANISH TEACHER, AFTERSCHOOL COORDINATOR
Originally from Puerto Rico, Noelia holds a BA in Modern Languages (French, Italian and Portuguese) as well as a Juris Doctor from the University of Puerto Rico. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Noelia moved to Seattle in 2007. Here in Seattle she completed credits in Montessori early education and got certified as a children’s yoga teacher (ages 2-7) with Next Generation Yoga. She has worked as a Spanish teacher for children (ages 0-7) and as a Montessori teacher in different schools around the Seattle area. Noelia is passionate about teaching young children and learning from them. She believes in creating a fun and diverse classroom that encourages every child’s creativity, curiosity and global awareness. In her free time, Noelia loves spending time with her family, traveling, reading, doing yoga and going to be beach.
nathaly alcantara
SPANISH TEACHER, PRESCHOOL & AFTERSCHOOL
Nathaly is from Venezuela. She is trained as a professional administrator, but is an educator at heart. Her father and uncles were teachers in Venezuela, so she's passionate about and educating children. She has experience in the field of planning and coordination , and she considers herself a dynamic and responsible person who values teamwork and commitment to colleagues, families and students. She also values language teaching and the use of new information technologies and methodologies to facilitate learning. She has taken several childcare courses with Washington State. She loves teaching children and learning from them daily. Before joining JOL, she worked in a bilingual day school, which made her fall more in love with this beautiful career.
javier de mabel
SPANISH & MUSIC TEACHER, PRESCHOOL & AFTERSCHOOL, TOUTORING
Javier is a graduate of the Conservatorio Superior de Música in the specialty of "Canto Jazz" in Navarra, Spain and has more than 20 years of experience as a musician working with different artists in Spanish popular music. For 10 years he has been giving private singing lessons. He was born and raised in Spain, where he learned not only the rich Spanish language but a whole culture, based on community values, festive spirit, curiosity, education, respect and creativity. He firmly believes that children are the future and that music is "the education of the soul” and that music plays and important role in the development of sensitivity and expression in children.
iara cardoso
SPANISH TEACHER, AFTERSCHOOL & IN-PERSON TUTORING
Iara holds a bachelors degree in Spanish from Arizona State University. She recently moved from Arizona to pursue her career in teaching Spanish to young children. Before moving to Seattle, Iara worked with young children and was excited when she was presented with the opportunity to work with JOL and put her Spanish degree to work. Iara believes that learning a second language is very important and opens up a world of possibilities. She hopes to continue teaching for a long time and inspire future generations.
edith zinger corona
SPANISH TEACHER, AFTERSCHOOL & LANGUAGE PLAYTIME
Edith is from Mexico where she spent more than 15 years working in childcare and as an art teacher. She is passionate about cultural diversity and truly believes that art is one of the best mediums for children to explore and learn. She loves working with children and admires their openness and ability to adapt. She things learning a second (or as many as possible!) language at a young age changes the mind in such positive and wonderful ways and is excited to be part of this team helping people on this beautiful journey. When not doing art, she likes to spend her time in nature, reading and cooking. She's an avid language learner herself and is currently studying Italian and ASL. One of her goals for the future is to become an ASL interpreter to help her community not only to be diverse but also inclusive.
lAURA fRANCO
SPANISH TEACHER, AFTERSCHOOL, IN-PERSON TUTORING AND PLAYTIME
Laura is a native Spanish speaker who thoroughly enjoys building relationships with her students as she knows the impact a positive and healthy relationship with educators can have on a child’s academic, social, and emotional growth. She hopes to continue to share her love for the Spanish language and her experience of her Mexican culture to help students grow academically, socially, and give them the ability understand the world through a different perspective.
Laura has worked in the field of education for over 6 years in various roles, ranging from school district Spanish interpreter to paraprofessional. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelors in English and Information Science and she is continuing her education by pursuing her Masters in Library and Information Science at the University of Washington. She plans to continue to help expand literacy and support communities as she believes every child should have the appropriate guidance and the necessary resources to grow academically and socially.
Lupe Galarza
SPANISH TEACHER, AFTERSCHOOL, IN-PERSON TUTORING
Lupe Galarza is a native Spanish speaker from the city of Lima, Perú. She holds a Bachelors degree in Audiovisual Communications from the Instituto Peruano de Publicidad.
After working in a play and an independent film while also being an AuPair, she realized she enjoyed working with children and sharing with them her passion for the arts, and combining those skills with teaching was a good combo. After working in an after-school program in Waban, MA, she worked in a child care center in Seattle and later became a Spanish Teacher. She worked at a private school for 18 years where she taught pre-schoolers and K-5 students, and also ran summer camps and after-school clubs. Looking for a change she found JOL, where she is happy to continue teaching Spanish to children of different ages and also adults. In her free time, Lupe enjoys dancing, helping friends with video projects, watching foreign films, writing, walking, and spending time with friends and her kids.
Lupe believes that every day is a learning experience, there’s a lot we can learn from children and it is our responsibility to provide them with lots of opportunities for growth, challenge and fun.
Malik Caldwell
SPANISH TEACHER, AFTERSCHOOL, IN-PERSON TUTORING & PLAYTIME
As long as Malik can remember he has been passionate about languages and culture. Thus, as soon as the opportunity was afforded to him he began taking classes as a Freshman in High-school at Curtis Senior High to learn the Spanish language. Malik developed his understanding of the Spanish language not only in the classroom but even more so by spending time with his best friends and their family who were born and raised in Mexico. As a Senior in High-school, Malik was selected to take part in a Foreign-Exchange Program where he hosted a student from Guatemala for 3 months. Graduating from High-school, Malik continued to learn and develop his understanding of the Spanish Language at the University of Washington where he took upper level Spanish courses in addition to beginning to learn the foundations of Mandarin Chinese. As a Freshman in College, Malik began to tutor students and was able to communicate with students and families in both English and Spanish. Through a variety of positions as a tutor and a teacher, Malik has learned how to capture students' attention and teach in a way that is intriguing and insightful based on their interests and skill level. Malik is excited to be a part of the Jump on Languages Family and looks forward to further getting to know students and their families.
Davied Espinosa
SPANISH TEACHER, AFTERSCHOOL
Davied is from Cuba and loves spending time with family and groups of friends, playing sports, playing Cuban minor percussion, the guitar, naturalistic sports excursions, and gastronomic tours to discover new flavors.
Before becoming a Spanish teacher Davied was a professional in digital marketing and creating sports adventure experiences. He graduated in accounting and finance and specialized in the category - price and cost of projects. He was a salesman of craft items and in 2017 decided to explore-discover-travel. He came to the United States to transform his career once again in the service of others and decided to become a lifeguard and teacher of special activities like sports and dance.
Becca BUSE
SPANISH TEACHER, AFTERSCHOOL, IN-PERSON PLAYTIME
Becca loves learning about the world through traveling and has a bachelor's degree in International Studies, with a Spanish language focus. In 2019 she spent one year immersed in Spanish while living in Bolivia with Etta Project's Community Transformation Center (CTC). There she led Chicas Fuertes, a young girls empowerment group. Becca also gained medicinal plant knowledge and created a bilingual guide for volunteers at the CTC; she is excited to share that knowledge in the JoL classroom. Afterwards she received her Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate and spent one year in South Korea as an English Teacher K-6. Becca is excited to be part of the Jump on Languages teaching team to continue educating youth, sharing world perspectives, and having fun! While outside of the classroom, she continues to volunteer with Etta Projects and local urban farms.
Louise anderson
SPANISH TEACHER, PRESCHOOL, AFTERSCHOOL
Louise holds a Bachelor's Degree from Ball State University in English and Spanish. She has worked with children her whole life as a nanny, a tutor, and a teacher. She grew up in a family of eight kids and dozens of exchange students, so chaos and cultural exchanges are what continue to nourish her soul. Louise was a stewardess in Pittsburgh and has recently moved here to Seattle to finish her novel and rejuvenate her love for learning and teaching.
Jennifer ricaldi
SPANISH TEACHER
Jennifer Ricaldi is originally from Lima, Peru, and is a native Spanish speaker. She moved to Seattle 7 years ago. She holds a specialty in pediatric dentistry and has experience understanding and treating infants, neurotypical children and children with disabilities. She worked as coordinator of programs to improve the oral health of mothers and children in rural and low-income settings in Peru. Her love and interest to work more actively with children in Seattle started when her and their family moved to Seattle with his 8 months old son.
She holds a degree in Public Health from UW and have been actively volunteering and participating in organizations to promote access and services for the latinx community in Seattle.
Ashley Trigloff
JAPANESE Tutor and Playtime Teacher
Ashley holds a Bachelor’s degree in Japanese literature from the University of Washington. During her time as a student, she studied abroad and worked as an intern at a language school in Hokkaido, Japan. In addition to her knowledge of the Japanese language and culture she is also certified to teach English as a foreign/second language. After graduating, she moved to Mie, Japan for three years where she worked as an assistant language teacher through her city’s Board of Education, teaching at several elementary and junior high schools in the area. She has also worked as a head preschool teacher as well as a private Japanese tutor. Ashley’s inspiration to teach comes from her desire to help broaden her students’ horizons; providing children with a lifelong skill and a new insight into foreign cultures.
Belle Arkham
JAPANESE Tutor
Belle earned her Bachelor's degree at the University of Washington before relocating to the Kansai region of Japan for eight years. While abroad, she worked with the Kobe Board of Education helping to develop a pilot program and speaking skill assessments for ESOL in public elementary schools with a focus on bilingual instruction. She completed her teaching certification program while living in Japan, and has aspirations to return to living there one day. Belle enjoys performance art, rock music, documentaries, and quantum mechanics when she isn't passionately teaching.
junko cole
JAPANESE Tutor
Junko has been a Japanese Instructional Assistant at John Stanford International School for the last 16 years. Before coming to the United States in 1999, she was teaching Japanese to foreigners in her home country of Japan.
I love sharing my language and culture with students. I especially love working with children. I am still amazed at how quickly young children can learn a foreign language. I like to mix in cultural material as well, to make it more fun and add context.