| Our Staff |
Executive Director, Lucia
D’Souza is responsible for the day-to-day
management of the Learning Springs Academy and oversees all components
of the program.
Lucia has over 17 years of experience working in both elementary and
preschool regular and special education settings. She spent 4 years
as the School Director of a non public school in Palo Alto serving students
with extreme behavioral and emotional challenges. She has thirteen years
of direct classroom experience teaching in San Francisco and Palo Alto working with
children of all ages with special needs.
Lucia also taught regular education in Hong Kong and worked
with multi-cultural families as she lived in a wide range of countries
globally.
Lucia has a Masters of Education from Vanderbilt University in Nashville
TN and a Masters of Science in Psychology attained from the University
of East Asia, Macau. In addition to this, she has a Post-graduate
Certificate in Education from the University of Hong Kong and a Bachelor’s
of Science in Sociology from the University of the West Indies, Trinidad
and Tobago.
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Sharon Woodburn joins our staff with a B.A. in Human Biology and a postgraduate
degree in Elementary Education from Stanford University. She has had two years of practical
experience thereafter as a Student and Kindergarten teacher in several elementary schools and
academies. One of her priorities will be to create a rich learning environment for students in
order to stimulate their curiosity and a desire to learn. She also hopes to help the young children
develop their social and emotional skills. Sharon is the Lead Teacher for the Green Room and works
with the school age group in the after school program.
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Jenny Subil attained her B.A. in Sociology last year from California State
University East Bay Hayward, CA, and joins our team with varied experience as a Behavior Therapist,
Extended Care Leader and Recreation Leader.
She has worked with children with special needs such as those with from autism and ADHD; organized
social and charitable activities (including AIDS and Breast Cancer Walks), neighborhood clean-up
campaigns; and planning and supervising after-school activities (including games, arts and crafts,
field trips and helping with homework.) Jenny is currently pursuing her Masters in Social Work and
works for us on a substitute basis.
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Stacey McLaren joins LSA as the Lead Teacher in the Red Room and brings to her
position, both academic qualifications and experience. This consists of a post-graduate degree in
Counseling from Santa Clara University followed by several years as a facilitator and supervisor
with EMQ Families First in Campbell. Being herself a parent of a child with special needs, she
has distinctive insights and great sensitivity to what all children need in order to succeed.
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While studying for her degree in Child and Adolescent Development, at San Jose State University,
Racquel Payton has worked as an afterschool Team Leader/Teacher, and Team Leader
for preschool campers and as a preschool teacher at the SJSU Child Development Lab for children. She
has also been an active volunteer, organizing numerous annual programs and fundraisers on Campus.
She is the Assistant Teacher in the Red Room.
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Karina Medina joins us this year in her new role as Assistant Director. She has worked at
LSA for the last five years as the Lead Teacher in our Pre K classroom Karina comes to us with a Bachelor
of Arts in Child Development from SJSU, a Child Development Center Administration Certificate and an
Associate in Arts Degree from DeAnza College . She has worked at Rainbow Bridge Academy and at the YMCA as
a teacher and most recently, as the Assistant Director of their preschool program.
In addition to being bilingual in Spanish and English, Karina brings a wealth of experience in coordinating
family nights and networking parents with local community resources.
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Shalini Agrawal has had varied experience in different areas after graduating in 1979 with an
MBA from the University of Allahabad, India. She worked as a Teacher Assistant on several occasions between 1993
and 1996. She gained further experience as a Teacher's Aide and Associate Teacher dealing with children with
special needs from 2006 to 2007 at Deanza College in Cupertino.
She is fond of preschool age children and wants
to inspire them to be lifelong learners. Shalini is a Substitute Teacher at LSA.
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Nagham Hussain is the Assistant Teacher in the Yellow Room working with our
two and a half year olds. She also works with our students in the extended care program. She
is working towards a certificate in Child Development at Mission College in Santa Clara, Nagham
has her B.A from Rafidan University and speaks Arabic fluently. Nagham is very familiar with
Learning Springs as her older daughter Sara was in our pre-k classroom and is in our school
age program and her son is currently enrolled in our program.
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Kazuko Gold Assistant Teacher. It is not merely our children that hail from different
corners of the globe. Our teachers too trace their origin from far and wide. Our latest recruit, Kazuko Gold,
speaks Japanese fluently having work experience in Japan and the USA.
After obtaining an Associate Degree in Early Childhood Education, Kazuko worked for seven years as the lead
teacher in an elementary school in Japan and later as a Japanese teacher in Redding, California. From May 2006
to the present she has been teaching in San Francisco.
Two of Kazuko's children attend Learning Springs and are in the Blue Room and the school age program.
Kazuko is the Assistant Teacher for the Green Room.
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Yuri Song is a substitute teacher. She is currently working
on completing her B.A this December from San Jose State in Child and Adolescent Development.
Yuri currently teaches on the weekends at the Korean Emmanuel Presbyterian Church Sunday School.
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Precious Ricardo obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Child and Adolescent Development
from San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, in May 2010. She simultaneously gained practical experience
as a teacher and youth leader. She is fluent in Tagalog and Spanish. Precious is the Lead Teacher in our
Yellow Room that serves our two and three year olds.
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Languages spoken by our staff
Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Hindi, Bengali, Japanese and Korean. |
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Contact Information
1718 Andover Lane
San Jose, CA 95124
408 216-8867
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