Our Team
Hello I'm Yelena Brookshire, the owner of Lango New Orleans LLC and director of Camp Lango. As a local parent, I am excited to bring dynamic, high quality language camps and classes to the families of the Greater New Orleans area!
What truly makes our program so successful? The answer to that question is most definitely our devoted and tireless teachers. Lango's teachers make our classes truly exceptional! In our selection process, we look for five distinct qualities: native/bilingual fluency, limitless positive energy, creativity, teaching experience with relevant age groups and outstanding communication skills with both children and their parents. Beyond these qualities, though, our teachers bring unique cultural perspectives and professional backgrounds that enable them to create rich, engaging experiences in the classroom.
While we will still be welcoming another French and Mandarin teacher, our summer team is almost formed.
Meet our team!
Mandarin
Hui Mao, Hui is a native speaker of standard dialect Mandarin and has for years worked as a teacher both in China and the U.S. Having received her Bachelor's degree in Education from Jiangxi Normal University, Hui taught students at the elementart school level inChina prior to moving to New Orleans. Hui joined the Lango team summer of 2010 and has been teaching classes and leading camps ever since. She is currently a teacher of Mandarin at the International School of Louisiana, where she enjoys working to introduce young learners to Mandarin. Hui brings a wealth of cultural and creative activities to her students. She especially enjoys teachign oru campers to cook traditional Chinese dishes, working on performances for the stage and creating art. She is truly a dedicated teacher who is always excited to work with young learners!
Li Qi, Qi will be graduating with her Ph.D. Developmental Psychology from Tulane University, this May . She is a native speaker of standard dialect Mandarin who received her Bachelors degree and teacher's license from East China Normal University (teacher's college). Qi had two years of teaching experience before coming to New Orleans to begin her studies in developmental Psychology and has always worked with children. In her training at Tulane University, she has been working with children of different ages throughout New Orleans. Qi has been woring with Lango since summer of 2010 and has truly enjoyed it! sHe loves teaching lango kids about her culture and offering activities like homestyle cooking (especially Sichuan style food), singing different Chinese kids' songs and doing origami... "I just love interacting with children and I do a lot of things that they are interested in!"
Spanish
Daniel Lorrain. Hailing from Ocean Springs on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Daniel’s search for the right notes on his guitar led him to the Crescent City in 2009. He studied jazz with Dr. Bill Grimes at LSU and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies at the celebrated UNO jazz program under Steve Masakowski. He teaches a guitar course at UNO and at the New Orleans Jazz Institute’s Saturday Music School for kids. An accomplished flamenco guitarist, Daniel will be using his guitarra to take the children on a musical journey through the rich cultures of Spain. Daniel grew up speaking both Spanish and English and is a dual citizen of the US and Spain. He is looking forward to a great summer and helping to create a memorable and fruitful experience for the children. ¡Olé!
Karlina Young, Karlina has loved Spanish since she was a young girl, and became fluent living with a family in Valencia, Spain during a high school semester abroad. Karlina continued studying language in college and received her B.A. from Tulane with a Spanish and European Studies double major and is currently pursuing her Masters of Arts in Spanish. Karlina taught high school Spanish at Ursuline Academy and is a veteran Lango teacher. She loves working with kids of all ages, and has been working at summer camps since she was a 14 year old Counselor in Training! Among Karlina's passions is her love for gymnastics and acrobatics. Having been a competitive gymnast, Karlina will bring the joy of acrobatics to Camp Lango campers. Karlina is looking forward to spending another wonderful summer at camp Lango and teaching Spanish to the our wonderful kids!
Veronica Valdes, Veronica is an experienced educator dedicated to teaching her native tongue, Spanish, to young children through creative and engaging activities. Veronica has years of experience working with pre-school and early elementary school age children and is currently enjoying her work as a third grade at the International School of Louisiana. She holds a B.A. in Foreign Language Teaching, earned at Francisco Gravidia University in El Salvador, where she was born. She looks forward to applying her years of experience in teaching Lango Kids.
André LeBeau, André was born in New Orleans, La., a city known for it's heavy Spanish and French influence. Understanding the importance of lingual diversity, he began learning Spanish at the age of 10. This fun-filled experience eventually led him to attend Concordia College's Spanish Immersion Camp, El Lago del Bosque. André has tutored high school students as well as elementary school for years. He enjoys working with young learners in particular because they have an unparalleled joy and competence for learning new things. He cultivates their interest by continuously engaging them in an wide assortment of activities including story telling, theatre, arts and crafts, and a number of other fun games. André is currently pursuing a B.A. in Spanish Language and Culture as well as a B.A. in French Language and Culture from Loyola University New Orleans. As the world is becoming a more diversified place, André believes that lingual and cultural competence is paramount to ensuring our youth's success in this highly demanding world.
French
Thomas Chaze, Thomas was born in France and spent most of his life in Bordeaux, prior to moving to New Orleans in 2007 as a foreign teacher with Codofil. After graduating College with a Masters degree in Philosophy, he became a teacher in France. Currently, thomas teaches third and fourth graders at J. C Ellis, a French imersion school in Jefferson Parish.
Teaching has been part of my life for more than ten years now. He was in charge of the summer camp at Ecole bilingue before Lango began hosting Camp Lango at this school. Since 2010, he is a proud member of the Lango summer family and enjoys teaching French through fun activities involving creative expression and sports and games. Thomas is looking forward to having a great summer and can not wait for camp to start!
Nathalie Dubois, Nathalie is a native speaker of French and has been teaching French to the children of New Orleans for years, ever since coming to New Orleans. She is currently a teacher's assistant at Ecole Bilingue and a Lango French teacher. Mom to a toddler, Nathalie especially enoys working with pre-school age children (she works in the two year old classroom at Ecole Bilingue). Nathalie is an artist and will be working with Camp Lango children on an array of arts projects, as well as teaching them songs and music and movement. She is truly looking forward to this summer!
Tricia Travis, Tricia is a native of New Orleans and graduates in May from Tulane University with a Bachelors in French Studies. Throughout her time at Tulane has enjoyed working with the children Audubon Charter French Immerson School as a student volunteer through a student teacher program where she was charged with developing and implementing creative activities with her group of students. Tricia loved working with the kids there and will continue working with children as well as her French studies as a teacher’s assistant in France next year. Tricia plays a range of sports and will be working with our campers on activities like soccer, t-ball, voley ball and yoga. She is excited to work with Camp Lango campers!