{"id":1575,"date":"2018-11-13T00:26:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T00:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/?p=1575"},"modified":"2018-11-13T00:26:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T00:26:22","slug":"sra-lopez-joins-the-world-language-and-diversity-and-inclusion-departments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/2018\/11\/13\/sra-lopez-joins-the-world-language-and-diversity-and-inclusion-departments\/","title":{"rendered":"Sra.L\u00f3pez Joins the World Language and Diversity and Inclusion Departments"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Aneesh Karuppur ’21<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This fall, Sra. Alexa L\u00f3pez joins Pingry as a Spanish teacher and the Assistant to the Chair of the Department of Diversity and Inclusion. As a member of the World Languages Department, she teaches two sections of Spanish 2 in the Upper School. In her role within the Department of Diversity and Inclusion, she teaches one section of the sixth grade Cultural Competency class. In addition, as the Assistant Chair to this department, Sra. L\u00f3pez works with affinity groups to provide the \u201cresources [students] need to have great conversations\u201d as well as with the Multicultural Teams to make sure that they \u201chave the tools they need to work with all children.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Sra. L\u00f3pez holds a B.S. in Business and Marketing from New Jersey\u2019s Kean University and a Master of Arts in Bilingual\/Bicultural Education from the Teacher\u2019s College at Columbia University in New York. <\/span><\/p>\n

When a friend asked her to teach a Spanish course, Sra. L\u00f3pez obliged and, realizing her love for teaching, left her work in business. For the next seven years, Sra. L\u00f3pez taught at the Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, New York and at the Millbrook School in Millbrook, New York. <\/span><\/p>\n

A native Puerto Rican, Sra. L\u00f3pez is a native speaker of Spanish and understands that many nuances of the language can sometimes be overlooked in school curriculum. When asked about how that immersive experience of growing up in a Spanish-speaking territory shaped her teaching, Sra.L\u00f3pez said that she grew up \u201cimmersed in English first and then immersed in only Spanish and back and forth, and so I believe that you have to be in the language as much as possible to be able to absorb it and use it. I try to put myself in a place of just absorbing language and try to give that to my students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the Pingry community, Sra. L\u00f3pez said, \u201cI think it\u2019s one of the most important things\u2026 it\u2019s one of our four pillars of the school. And rightfully so, because there are people here with all kinds of backgrounds, and we welcome more.\u201d She understands that everyone wants to \u201cfeel needed and known for who they are.\u201d One of her main goals for working in the Department of Diversity and Inclusion is to \u201coffer more exposure to affinity groups\u2026 I want students to know how helpful [affinity groups] are. I really want to get to know the community, first of all, and then adapt from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sra. L\u00f3pez\u2019s outside interests include reading books that discuss topics that combine her work and her personal lives, such as the subject of identity development. Just like the rest of us, she also enjoys vacationing. Sra. L\u00f3pez also loves to spend time with her family and friends. <\/span><\/p>\n

So far, Sra. L\u00f3pez has truly been enjoying Pingry, explaining that \u201cthis campus offers so many resources that I haven\u2019t had in other campuses.\u201d She appreciates that everybody\u2019s health and wellness \u201care really promoted here\u2026 and everybody\u2019s so kind.\u201d Of course, another important part of the Pingry experience is the food. When asked about the lunch, Sra. L\u00f3pez said, \u201cThe lunch is going to get me in trouble because I\u2019m having way too much of it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Aneesh Karuppur ’21 This fall, Sra. Alexa L\u00f3pez joins Pingry as a Spanish teacher and the Assistant to the Chair of the Department of Diversity and Inclusion. As a member of the World Languages Department, she teaches two sections of Spanish 2 in the Upper School. In her role within the Department of Diversity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":1576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[33,37],"class_list":["post-1575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","tag-faculty-and-staff","tag-new-faculty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1577,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions\/1577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}