Lisa Almeter
Founder & Director
Lisa developed her love and began studying the Spanish language and culture when she lived in Madrid-Spain and Lima-Peru. She has since traveled extensively to many other native Spanish speaking destinations to include Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. She has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Spanish / Psychology with an emphasis in Childhood Development from John Carroll University. She has since fostered her love of the Spanish language and culture by sharing what she had learned with each of her four children when they were in preschool… and today… has helped to enrich thousands of children’s lives.
Elizabeth Agnello
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Liz Agnello teaches Spanish at Orchard Park High School. She has a true passion for teaching and the Spanish language! Liz shares that she has so much fun teaching with our program and loves working with the elementary students. She started with our program in 2017. Outside of school she enjoys cooking and traveling. She has visited 28 countries so far in her travels!
Rita Cupples
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Rita Feliciano-Cupples has been teaching with our program since 2018. She is excited to share her Puerto Rican culture and Spanish language of her childhood! Rita lived on the island as a teenager and has visited several times since. Currently she is researching her historical ancestry from Puerto Rico. She readily volunteers for a not for profit in Hamburg where she is called upon to help with migrating families. Rita has also traveled to Mexico, Germany and Brazil.
Lourdes de la Colina-Scofield
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Lourdes de la Colina-Scofield is bilingual and a native Spanish speaker originally from Peru, where she was a Public Accountant and worked for different international organizations. She travels every year to Peru and has also traveled to Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba, Sevilla, Barcelona), Greece, France, Italy, Austria, Dominican Republic ,Mexico and Canada. She has lived in Rochester, Ny since 2001 and has been teaching Spanish since 2011 to elementary, middle and high school students along with some adults! She started teaching with the program in 2019 and says she loves how excited the students are to learn Spanish!
Erica Manson
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Erica Manson began teaching with our program in 2014. She is a 2004 cum laude graduate of Daemen College. She attained her Bachelor’s Degree in Childhood and Special Education with a Master’s Degree in Special Education. She has had many varied past professional experiences including teaching in a bilingual setting. Erica says she enjoys introducing the Spanish language and culture to children in the preschool and elementary Spanish.
Renee McMahon
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Renee McMahon holds her degree in Spanish, along with a Master’s Degree in Education, from Nazareth College. She was introduced to the Spanish language and Hispanic culture at a young age due to her family hosting several exchange students from various Hispanic countries. Renee had the opportunity to live in Spain during high school and to study there as a student in college. She has been teaching with Spanish Club™ (formerly Culturekids™) since 2014 and loves introducing the young students to Spanish.
Michael Mendola
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Mike Mendola holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from SUNY College at Fredonia and post- baccalaureate New York State Certification in Secondary Social Studies Education from Buffalo State College. He has always been interested in Spanish/Latin American culture and previously lived in the Southwest United States for 5 years. Michael has visited Costa Rica and Mexico on multiple occasions. He brings a great prospective to the classroom and has been teaching with the program since 2015.
Lourdes Peckham
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Lourdes Peckham holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from a college in Mexico. She has been married to an upstate New Yorker since 1983. For many years she worked in two US companies in Credit and in Inside Sales for Latin American customers. Lourdes started teaching Spanish at Archangel School in Rochester in 2012 and discovered that teaching was her original vocation. She enjoys teaching Spanish and sharing the Spanish culture with the students! She loves working with the elementary age students. She shares that the children come into the class very happy and eager to learn new words along with it being easy and fun for them to learn at this age.
Kaitlyn Richert
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Kaitlyn Richert has a degree in elementary education and Spanish from Canisius College. She has lived and studied in Oviedo, Spain and has traveled throughout Spain and Europe. She has experience teaching elementary, middle and high school Spanish. She says she loves working our students and has been with our program since 2014.
Nicole Rogers
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Nikki Rogers is a busy mom of 3. She has a love of learning new things including languages. She is working on expanding her languages and learning Hebrew. She studied Human and Social Services at Manchester Community College. Nikki brings a smile and sense of fun to her classes! She started with our program in 2018 and looks forward to continuing to share the Spanish language with preschool and elementary aged students.
Maria Siepel
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Maria is a world traveler! She is a native speaker from Spain and has been teaching Spanish at the elementary level for over 30 years. She currently teaches Spanish at Nardin Academy, in Buffalo, NY, where she has taught since 1985. Maria is a member of the Western New York Foreign Language Educators Council. She has traveled throughout Europe, South America, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, China and United Arab Emirates. She loves sharing her travel experiences with her students.
Kim Sprague
Spanish Club™ Instructor
Kim Sprague’s educational background is in child psychology and development. She started with our program in 2019 and was recruited by her mom who is a fellow teacher with us! Kim has traveled to France and Spain where she had a chance to use her Spanish first hand. She shared how awesome it was to hear the language all around, experience the different cultural aspects of life along with the amazing architecture. She is excited to be teaching in the program and loves watching the students learn and grow.
Janet Priore
Pittsburgh Branch Manager
Janet Priore serves as the Pittsburgh branch manager. Her experience as a child protection compliance operations administrator for Carnegie Mellon University and corporate trainer for Blue Cross Blue Shield, coupled with her love of the Spanish language, helps make her a great addition to our team. She has offered Spanish tutoring to K-12 and college students since 2011 using multiple teaching techniques and she enjoys creating a fun, positive learning environment for children. Janet and her husband, Ryan, are busy raising three children and live in the Wexford, PA area. Janet holds a B.A. in Business Administration and Spanish from the University of Pittsburgh.
3,500
Annual Students
20
Years of Experience
