Our Team

Our quality instructors deliver fun and vibrant Spanish language classes leveraging thoughtful activities which peaks the child’s interest, thereby motivating them to learn new words. In some cases, parents have told us that children will proactively use a Spanish word to describe a color, animal, or identify something around the house. This is validation for the parent that their child is absorbing the lessons and drives numerous recommendations for our program.

Listed below are our Instructors who make Young Spanish the best language learning program in the Midwest. 

Angie Stratton is from the St. Louis area. Growing up with a mother and aunt who were both Spanish teachers inspired her interest in the language at an early age.  After two years of high school Spanish she had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica and it reinforced the desire and value of continuing to study the language.  She graduated from the University of Missouri-Rolla (now MS&T) with a B.S. in Architectural Engineering and a minor in Spanish, and during those years was able to take several trips to Mexico, return to Costa Rica for a summer, and tutor college level Spanish students.  Her passion to work with people instead of computer screens gradually led her away from structural engineering and into teaching.  Six months in Portuguese speaking Mozambique in 2009 deepened her desire to help others build relationships cross-culturally through language learning.  She taught Spanish full-time at Creme de la Creme preschool in 2010.

Senora Angie is married and lives in Kansas City.

Peggy Vaslow grew up in Omaha, NE and obtained her Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Benedictine College.  She received her doctorate degree in school psychology from Tulane University in New Orleans.  She worked as a school psychologist for several years in Houston and Memphis before returning to the Midwest to raise her family.  Her expertise in child development has helped her excel in developing and delivering age-appropriate activities to make learning Spanish fun and meaningful for Young Spanish students. 

Senora Peggy lives in Overland Park with her husband and two sons.   

 Helen Karabed hails from San Jose, CA where she majored in Spanish Studies at Santa Clara University.  She is a first-generation Armenian born in the U.S. and enjoyed a culturally rich upbringing where she was exposed to Armenian, Farsi, and English.  This led her to study and master Spanish as her 4^th language. Over the years she has traveled to many nations including Mexico, Panama, Peru, Jamaica, Haiti, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Armenia, serving as a translator on many of those trips.  One would never guess that Helen has been teaching Spanish for only two years. Yet her ability to engage children at all levels, and her broad cultural background makes her a great fit for the curriculum and school.