The following is a detailed description of the Hoboken Dual Language Team, also known as Hola. The team includes the founders along with the Advisory Board. Short bio's follow with some detail as to each person's background, experience, and expertise.
The FoundersThe co-founders of the Hoboken Dual Language Program bring a range of varied professional, academic and life experience to the development and implementation of the program, dovetailing in their passion for education and their common belief in the multi-faceted value of bilingualism. In their role as the HoLa Leadership Team, they will continue to commit their full time and singular focus to making the program a success.
Jennifer Hindman Sargent holds a BA in Psychology/Anthropology from New York University, as well as an M.S.Ed. in Counseling from Hunter College (CUNY), where she first explored the benefits of bilingual education, and through which she worked as a counselor in two public high schools in New York City. In addition, Jennifer brings 15 years of marketing, advertising and project management experience to The HoLa Leadership Team, including launching and managing her own freelance copywriting business, counting Bloomingdale’s as a primary client since 2003. In 2005, she and a small group of like-minded parents created and implemented a weekly cooperative pre-school program for their own two-year-olds, where the parents rotated planning, teaching and assisting responsibilities; in 2007, when their younger children reached the same age, Camille Bustillo joined them for a successful recreation of the original program. Jennifer learned Spanish as an adult, largely through extensive travel in Spain and Latin America, including participation in an immersion program at La Universidad Antonio de Nebrija in Madrid, Spain. She is currently an elected member of the HOPES Head Start Policy Council.
Camille Korschun Bustillo earned a BA in history from Yale University and an MBA from Columbia University. Camille comes to The HoLa Leadership Team from the world of marketing and communications, most recently from the International Marketing Group at Maybelline, where she brought products from research and development to retail. Her first entrepreneurial experience was with Delia's, a teen-focused retailer, where she worked in various roles to develop the fledgling company from start-up to public offering, culminating in a position as Editorial Director. Camille grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio and Montreal, Quebec, where she benefited from opportunities to participate in academic content-based immersion classes at St. George's High School. Her mother’s career since 1990 as a teacher, then Principal of a successful French immersion elementary program has provided Camille with invaluable insight that has informed her and inspired her to bring such a program to her own community. She received a certificate in French Language from La Sorbonne in Paris, before taking up Spanish at Yale, where she met her husband, a native Spanish speaker. Because she and her husband have both experienced first-hand the benefits of bilingualism, personally and professionally, they have chosen to raise their children in a bilingual household.
HoLa Advisory BoardOf the many people we have conferred with throughout the research and development process, the following individuals constitute a core group who has agreed to remain involved on an ongoing basis (unpaid), through the implementation phase of the HoLa program, each according to his or her area(s) of expertise:
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Dr. Victoria Hunt, Assistant Principal at P.S. 75, The Emily Dickinson School, in Manhattan (oversees the Spanish-English immersion program); consultant with Torres-Guzman & Associates; and former instructor in the Bilingual/Bicultural Program at Teachers College, Columbia University
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Jennifer Friedman, M.S., Co-Founder and Director of Development, La Escuelita, a private Spanish-English immersion pre-school and after-school/summer program for children up to 3rd grade in Manhattan
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Mercedes Tellez-Gil, M.A., Coordinator of Bilingual Programs and World Languages, Englewood Public Schools, Englewood, NJ
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Dr. Doré Korschun, Ed.D. Principal, Glover School (French immersion), Milton, MA (Mother of Camille Korschun Bustillo)
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Maria Bustillo, M.S.Ed., Bilingual, ESL and World Languages Supervisor, Jersey City Public Schools, Jersey City, NJ (Mother-in-law of Camille Korschun Bustillo)
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Dr. Jennifer Austin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, Rutgers University, Newark; researcher in the field of language development in bilingual children
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Joselyn Estevez-Vargas, M.S.Ed., Director of Early Childhood & Family Services, HOPES, Inc.
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Seouvan Rodriguez, Co-Director, Hudson County Boys and Girls Club
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Craig Mainor, Program Coordinator, Jubilee Center, Hoboken, NJ
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Mary Azzarto Ciampa, an original co-founder of the HoLa program, is now based in Cambridge, MA, where she is applying her long history of entrepreneurial and business expertise to Isabella Products, and continuing to provide valuable input to the HoLa program remotely.
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