Our Staff
Dr. Karen Sánchez received her B.A. from Douglass College with a major in Spanish and minors in English and Religion and both her Ed. M. and Ed. D. in Second Language Education from Rutgers University. She holds teaching certificates in Spanish, English, and English as a Second Language as well as a Supervisor’s certificate for educational programs. Besides having been district supervisor for World Languages, ESL and Bilingual education programs in a large K-12 school district, she has extensive teaching experience at the K-12 level, including elementary, middle and high school in all subjects in which she holds certification and at both the undergraduate and graduate university levels.
In addition to designing and teaching an award winning elementary world language program, Dr. Sanchez helped write the NJ World Languages Framework and the original Master Teacher Exam for World Languages Other Than English for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. While at Rutgers she redesigned the elementary and intermediate language program to conform to national language standards and played an instrumental role in designing the Master of the Art of Teaching program and its courses in pedagogy offered through the World Language Institute at Rutgers. Courses she has designed and taught, both in English and in Spanish, include: o Methods of Second Language Teaching o Theories of Second Language Acquisition o Language Across the Curriculum: Focus on Math and Science o Language Across the Curriculum: Focus on the Humanities o Legends, Fables and Myths of the Spanish-speaking World o Pre-Columbian Civilizations of the Americas o Voyages and Messages of the Palate She has consulted and provided teacher training in more than 25 school districts and has presented seminars, webinars, and papers in local, regional, national and international settings. Dr. Sanchez’s love of the outdoors and adventure was ignited and nourished through her life-long involvement with Girl Scouts. A scout from age ten, she has served as troop leader for all levels from Brownie to Seniors, helping the older girls plan and fundraise for three trips to Europe while ensuring that service played a major role in their monthly activities. When her sons were young, she served as den mother, pack leader and Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts. In the area of sports, Dr Sanchez was both a high school field hockey and local recreation program soccer coach. She enjoys arts and crafts, needlework, gardening, dancing, traveling (she’s been in 49 states, 11 countries in the Americas, and 6 in Europe) and best of all, relaxing at the beach in Emerald Isle!
A native of La Paz, Bolivia, Celso Sánchez had an adventurous childhood. His main influences were a large, very loving family and a progressive school. He was introduced to his second language, English, early in grade school and developed his passion for learning, sports and music by actively participating in every activity available to him. He was one of seven winners from his whole country to earn a spot as an exchange student in the U.S. He enjoyed his stay in a small town in Iowa where he joined the Football team as a kicker only two weeks after he saw the game for the first time. In addition he made the grades necessary to qualify as the Salutatorian.
Upon his return to Bolivia, he was able to become, at 18, the youngest teacher of English in an academy run by the US Government. At the same time, he was able to fulfill some other dreams like trying out for a first division professional soccer team, participating in national track meets, playing drums with a rock band and being accepted to the School of Engineering.
His desire to come back to the U.S. was fulfilled when he received a full scholarship to study at Rutgers University. It was there that Karen and Celso met - when Karen headed a Spanish Conversation club that invited foreign students to share experiences, and expand everyone’s cultural understanding. Celso was able to also pursue his lifetime passion playing with the Rutgers Varsity soccer team for all four years.
After a variety of activities that included court interpreting, substitute teaching, tutoring, soccer coaching and playing, photography and even school bus driving, he embarked on a long successful career with AT&T. Through many of those years of productive results and learning, Celso worked in the AT&T-International Division and had the opportunity to combine his engineering and business backgrounds, to travel extensively and often to Spain and, among others, literally every single Spanish speaking country from Mexico to Argentina and Chile.
It is that type of experience that makes Celso such an engaging and successful instructor at Rutgers where he now teaches culture and international business courses. His passion for teaching has always extended to children of all ages and can easily range from languages, to culture, to mathematics, to sciences, to sports and to music. The idea he always wants to convey is that you learn by living and doing.
Added to his natural energy and enthusiasm is his desire to share his life experiences and talents with the next generation as a teacher, coach, mentor, leader and organizer. The only passion that equals all of the above – and, in part, because he grew up in a land-locked country – is his love for Emerald Isle, which Karen and Celso have made the center of their extended family’s inner soul.