Our Team
Our Renaissance Kids Instructors

Aaliyah has worked in the Renaissance Academy of Learning for several years as a SPARK theatre teacher, a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and language enrichment teacher, a lead Wondercamp instructor, and an assistant in the Reach to Teach program.

As a teacher, Aaliyah love to see students discover, explore, and build new things. She believes that children have a world of opportunities and it is up to teachers to guide them to their desired paths. In technology, she believes in giving students hands-on opportunities to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Aaliyah enjoys being there as a helping hand and seeing the light in children’s eyes when they discover something new. In technology class, students work together to ask questions and come up with creative answers through discovery.

Charlene is part of our creative team here at Renaissance Kids, and she loves sharing her experience working with children in the academic field and creative studio environment. She believes in the innovative ability, imaginative and creative potentials within each child.

She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of British Columbia in visual arts and art history and she holds a Communicative Design Essentials Certificate from British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Charlene believes that in every artistic piece, there is conflict between the subject matters and the mediums used to create the work, and her role is to find the balance through artistic expression. Freedom of materials is crucial to this process; thus, she utilizes a broad range of mediums including photographic images, video installations, paintings, drawings, macromedia pieces and graphic illustrations.

Charlene looks forward to the journey with her team at Renaissance Kids and to all the adventures in this dedicated environment

AWARDS

• Charlene’s artwork has been exhibited in the UBC Art Gallery, Vancity Theater and the Access Gallery in Vancouver, BC

Francine is originally from Québec City. After graduation from the University of Toronto, she moved to Asia where she spent 37 years.

Francine dedicated 15 years of her life to doing humanitarian projects in Southeast Asia. This brought her to Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. In the year 2000, her family moved to China where she spent the next 21 years employed as an ESL teacher at the early education and primary levels.

Teaching has been Francine’s calling in life, and she has been very committed to her work. It is her hope to give her students the tools and the means to live productive lives and thereby make the world a more just, compassionate, and peaceful place. As an educator, she considers her work to be crucial in the way it impacts the next generation. It is her goal to enable her students to face an ever-changing future and thrive in it.

Originally from Vancouver Island, Paige moved to Vancouver in July 2022 after completing her bachelor’s degree at the University of Victoria. Growing up, Paige loved school (particularly the sciences) and dance. Having started dancing at three years old, she has trained in many styles including ballet, jazz, tap, and contemporary, and has taught various dance classes to children aged 18 months to 18 years. Being passionate about both academics and dance, Paige has experienced first-hand the importance of integrating the arts into children’s education. She is very excited to be joining the Renaissance Kids team! Besides dance, Paige also loves animals, baking, and puzzles!

Ross has been with us since 2005. He is also a full-time supervisor of community living with SHARE Family and Community Services in Coquitlam (since 2008). Before that, he managed a full-time theatre company for adults with special needs in Vancouver, as well as working in municipal recreation. He has a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree from the University of Ottawa. Ross also has an Advanced Level Instructor certification from the Crisis Prevention Institute, a management certification from the Justice Institute of B.C., and a PEERs Counselling Diploma.

Ross believes drama is a great foundation to empower children to feel confident in front of a group—an attribute that they can use in all aspects of life. The foundation of all his classes is capturing the boundless creativity of our students.

After graduating from Simon Fraser University with a degree in sociology, Alisha felt that teaching was where she belonged. Although she received admission to the teaching program, something told her that she was about to make a grave mistake. She felt that the early childhood age was her true calling and passion. Alisha worked at a child care centre for 10 years and loved every day there. Thus, she decided to skip the teaching program and enroll in Pacific Rim’s Basic Early Childhood Certification Program, where she received her Early Childhood Educator Certificate.

Alisha is continuously inspired to teach in ways that are creative, innovative, and meaningful while evaluating her practice so that she can be the very best that she can for the children. Her hands-on experience and schooling have added greatly to her toolkit. Alisha endeavours to connect personally with each child, knowing the positive impact that teachers have on children.

In her spare time, Alisha loves learning other skills that she can use in the classroom, be it drawing and learning exciting new crafts or studying a topic that is of interest to the children. Also, she enjoys hiking, reading, biking, playing the piano, and walking along the dyke in Richmond where she was born and raised!

One of Grace’s favourite things at work is when she hears her students calling: “Ms. Grace, Ms. Grace!” It makes her so happy to see the excitement in their eyes when they want to share something they have discovered or express something they want to learn. Grace loves getting the chance to be a part of their creative learning. Each day when she sees their smiles, it continues to fuel her passion for working with children. Grace feels so blessed to be a part of such a great team and takes comfort in knowing they share the same philosophy: to provide the best learning and loving environment for our children.

Before moving to Vancouver, Grace worked as a social worker in Hong Kong and enjoyed helping people to help themselves. Grace loves being a mother, and loves to share and discuss parenting skills with others, so feel free to discuss any questions or concerns you might have.

Nadya has been working and growing with children ever since she has known herself; starting from babysitting infants to tutoring various subjects in primary and secondary schools and to eventually teaching in preschools. She got her Early Childhood Educator Assistant certification from Northern Lights College and started her teaching career abroad, teaching kids in preschools English as their second language. One thing that she has learned through her passion of teaching is, no matter where you are, ALL children are beautiful and unique in their own special way. Love and acceptance are all they need for healthy growth. Nadya believes positive communication is the key to their true happiness while they are on the journey of discovering who they are and what their potential may be.

Nadya is a mommy of two loving kids. When she is not working, she truly enjoys spending time with them no matter where they are or what they may be doing. Quality time is the essence to everything. Nadya encourages all parents to take time and explore with their children, learning from each other. Read with them, eat with them, play with them, go out for walks with them, do sports with them, sing and dance, be silly with them; but most importantly, have fun with them. Enjoy every moment learning and growing happily. It is an ongoing, valuable experience, which is one of the reasons why Nadya has been in the teaching field for a long time. During her free time, she also practices meditation, yoga, and reiki. She enjoys reading books and listening to music. They have been a part of her agenda for a very long time.

Wendy is so excited to begin the next chapter of her teaching career with the amazing Renaissance Academy team!

She has three diplomas in Early Childhood Education, music education, and education management in China. She also holds three certificates in Canada: Post Early Childhood Education Certificate (3–5 years old), Post-Basic Early Childhood Education Certificate – Infant and Toddler (0–3 years old), and Post-Basic Early Childhood
Education Certificate – Special Needs.

Wendy absolutely loves the way children see the world and is honoured that she gets to be a part of their day-to-day growth. Wendy supports children as they overcome learning difficulties and improve their daily living habits by arranging field trips and promoting opportunities that foster positive emotional, social, cognitive, and physical growth.

Wendy is interested in photography, gardening, playing the piano, cooking, and travelling. She says she is fortunate to wake up every single day loving what she does.

Kit pursued her career in the Early Childhood Education field because she loves children! Her love for this profession stems from getting to see children grow and learn on a daily basis. Her priority is to develop a classroom where all children are happy and safe and seek continuous learning. It is her hope that children not only grow academically but also socially and become well informed, responsible members of society.

Kit believes that what the world needs now is love, kindness, charity, and acceptance. Families come in all shapes and sizes and each family is special in its own unique way. It is very important that young children understand peace and the importance of being kind, responsible, compassionate, and empathetic. Having children understand cultural differences and being able to show respect to others is critical.

Hilary has lived in Canada for more than 20 years, having completed high school and college here. After she graduated, she went back to Hong Kong to work in the accounting and shipping field for five years. She then decided to come back to Canada to start a family. Hilary has two daughters, and they are the reason that she chose to go into the field of Early Childhood Education. She enjoys spending time with her family and children. Hilary has always known that she wanted to work with children, but didn’t know how much she would love it or how important it was until she became a mother herself.

Hilary cares deeply about each child’s success and she is dedicated to supporting and guiding your children as they explore, create, and discover the world around them. She can’t wait to spend the next year learning and growing with everyone!