Jennifer Briones, Teaching Assistant

Jennifer was born in Quito, Ecuador where she grew up in a bi-cultural home (her mom is Chilean, and her dad is Ecuadorian). This mixture gave her the curiosity to explore and understand different cultures. She traveled to Hungary as a high-school exchange student, where she lived for a year, learned the language and went to a ballet school.

She started a rigorous ballet education when she was nine years old which helped her start teaching other children when she was thirteen. Besides her passion for dance, Jennifer discovered a particular feeling for writing, and, after becoming a ballet dancer, she earned a BA in Social Communication at the Universidad Central del Ecuador in Quito, and worked as a journalist for four years. She worked for "El Comercio", the most prestigious newspaper in the country, as a reporter and the coordinator for the youth section. At around the same time she obtained a job as a ballet teacher at La Providencia Primary School in Quito, an opportunity that she took on immediately.

Her experience as a journalist made Jennifer realize that writing was exciting, but teaching was incredible. This made her take on more roles where she could work with children. While working as a journalist she also taught dance workshops, entertained children at events, and was a child care volunteer. In 2006 she decided to quit her career as a journalist, moved to the USA as an Au Pair, and became a gymnastics instructor at The Little Gym in Austin. In 2009 she worked as a Spanish Teacher with the Round Rock School Independent School District through Futura Language Professionals, and she loved to share her native language through games, pictures, and stories. She also had a great experience working with young kids while being a Teacher Assistant at Northwest Montessori House of Children in Austin.

Jennifer arrived at Magellan during the summer of 2010 and was immediately amazed at how the IB philosophy had the potential to influence the whole MIS community. She is currently pursuing a Bilingual Teaching Certification, and a MA in Education is her next goal. She believes that "children will embrace the world at their own pace and in their own way, we are simply here to help them do that."

When Jennifer is not teaching, she's dancing, reading, surfing on the Internet, or practicing her cooking skills.