Northwest Chinese Academy

NWCA's greatest strength lies in our highly dedicated teachers who put their hearts into everything they do and who are the foundation of our school's success. Our faculty of native Chinese speakers have extensive teaching and leadership experience, both in China and in the U.S., in the areas of language, arts, math, social studies and science. Our faculty have led award-winning programs such as Math Olympic teams, art troupes, and children's leadership teams.

Wenny

Born in the beautiful coastal city of Wenzhou, China, Wenny brings her diligent, warm, open, bright and compassionate style of teaching to Northwest Chinese Academy. Through these qualities, Wenny has enjoyed an extremely successful seven years of experience as an educator.

Wenny graduated from Wenzhou Teacher's University with BA degree in Mathematics Education Science and holds a teaching license from the Ministry of Education in China. Following graduation, she taught for five years as the mathematics teacher and homeroom teacher for the local junior high school. During this time, Wenny also taught an elementary school Olympics mathematics training class as an extracurricular activity for 1st through 5th graders. Wenny truly enjoyed the experience of working with different age groups of students. Wenny has also attended the Confucius Institute's teacher training program at Portland State University.

For the past seven years Wenny has lived in the US where she has worked hard to understand this country and make it her home. She returned to college to study accounting where she completed each course with outstanding achievements. Wenny's dream is to be a successful teacher in America. Two years ago, she joined the teaching staff at a private Chinese immersion school in Portland, Oregon. During those two years, under the guidance of experienced immersion educators, continuous exploration and hard work, she successfully mastered the major skills needed for immersion style teaching combining the best of Chinese and American teaching.

Sharon

Born and raised in China, Sharon joins NWCA with an abundant history of educational experience that demonstrates her devotion to children and love of teaching.

Sharon holds a degree from the Chinese Guangzhou Normal School and a teaching license from the Ministry of Education in China. In 1981, she joined the Guangzhou public school, teaching grades one through five. She was a director of the Children's Leadership Team, a team in charge of organizing large-scale themed activities and extracurricular activities. Many of which won, provincial and municipality level awards. During this period she also held a teaching position at the Children's Palace and Children's Art Ensemble. Sharon has also attended the Confucius Institute's teacher training program at Portland State University.

Sharon moved to the United States in 2000 where she joined the teaching staff of the first Chinese language immersion school in the Pacific Northwest. As one of the founders of this program, she helped establish the Chinese language program for elementary aged students. During her eight years of teaching there, she enjoyed the experience of teaching many different elementary grade levels.

Once a member of the Guangzhou Art Troupe, Sharon shares her dance experience by teaching Chinese dance here in the US. Today, she continues to work as the principal and dance instructor for the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association's Chinese Art and Culture School. She also enjoys teaching traditional Chinese dance to the Heart to Heart Team, founded by FCC (Families with Children from China). She previously taught dance at the Jiao Ying Art School of Portland.

Yafei

Yafei Liu, a native Chinese speaker from Chongqing, China, joins Northwest Chinese Academy with 35 years of teaching experience. A renowned Chinese immersion educator, Yafei's history includes leading Portland's first immersion program and collegiate level presentations on language immersion.

Yafei holds a B. A. degree with a major in Chinese language and literature. During her time as a teacher in China, Yafei taught Chinese language, math, and music to Kindergarten through 6th grade students. Yafei holds a teaching license from the Ministry of Education in China, and a Senior Teaching Technology Certificate (since 1988). She completed her professional leadership training in Chongqing City, where she served as a professional Lead Teacher from 1988 to 1994.

Yafei's 10 years of teaching experience in the Unites States includes founding Portland's first Chinese immersion program where she held the position of Lead Teacher, writing and overseeing the implementation of a highly successful Chinese immersion curriculum for elementary aged students. From 2005 to 2008, it was under her leadership that the 5th grade students of this program successfully completed the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi), the standard exam for measuring oral and written Chinese language proficiency in non-native speakers, an examination normally administered to adults. In 2008, the younger students of her program achieved excellent results on the YCT (Young Learners Chinese Test). Yafei has also successfully led four Capstone Trips to China for the 5th grade students in her program. Additionally, Yafei enjoyed leading an internationally recognized art troupe that has performed in both the United States and China.

As a recognized member of the international teaching community, Yafei has been attending COFLT (Confederation in Oregon for Language Teaching) as a presenter since 2006. Her presentations have included "Chinese Curriculum and Capstone," "Chinese Curriculum and Total Immersion Program," and "How to Design the Chinese Curriculum." Additionally, as part of their Chinese Teacher Training Program at Portland State University's Confucius Institute, Yafei taught a segment entitled, "How to Teach and What to Teach." Many Chinese immersion educators attended her segment. She was interviewed by CCTV (China Centre Television), The Children's Channel, and the "Under the Same Sky" program in 2005. Yafei has attended various conferences in China where she has presented her philosophies on teaching Chinese language and culture to non-Chinese speakers. Several of her articles have been published in Chinese newspapers over the years.

Tina

A native speaker of Mandarin Chinese from Guangzhou, China, Tina brings a rich history as an immersion educator to Northwest Chinese Academy.

Tina is recognized as a founder of Portland' first Chinese immersion program where she taught for over 10 years. She holds a B.A. degree and attended the Confucius Institute's teacher training program at Portland State University. Her professional teaching experience includes educating preschool and kindergarten aged children in a full Chinese immersion environment for over ten years. Tina has a great love for educating children and creates a wonderfully enriched Chinese immersion environment in which her students learn. She is exceptionally skilled at effective classroom management and works hard to help her students develop valuable life-long skills and habits for effective learning. With great enthusiasm, she encourages all children to reach their highest achievements.

Tina is also known as a founder of an internationally recognized Portland-based art troupe. Her dedication to this young group of performers is evident through the renowned hand-made costumes that she personally created for their performances. They have held performances both in the Unites States and China. Additionally, Tina has dedicated much of her personal time to volunteering for community events in the greater Portland area.

Sharon

Born and raised in Guangzhou, China, Donna joins Northwest Chinese Academy with an educational background and career that demonstrates her dedication to teaching.

During a time in China when there was limited access to formal education, Donna voluntarily spent her free time teaching adults and children how to read and write in Chinese.

Donna arrived in the United States in 1998 and has continued to grow her career as an educator here in the Portland area. Her professional background includes more than six years of experience teaching Mandarin to first graders at the Portland CCBA Chinese Language School. Her experience also includes working for the Portland Public Schools as a Special Education Educational Assistant at Atkinson Elementary School. From January 2006 through June 2008, Donna worked as an immersion educator at The International School of Portland. Working in a full-immersion classroom environment, Donna was the assistant teacher for pre-school students.

Donna holds a degree in Accounting from Shen Zhen College. She has attended teacher-training programs in both the Portland and Seattle areas. Most recently, Donna attended a K-12 Chinese Language Teacher Training program offered by the Confucius Institute at Portland State University where she was awarded a certificate of achievement for her studies. Two weeks were spent studying at Portland State University and the remaining three weeks of study were completed abroad at SuZhou University in SuZhou, China.

Elaine was born and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. She moved to Tacoma, Washington for 13 years, moved back to Ohio again, but now is back in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She loves working with children, and she loves the arts. Elaine began her formal education by obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Ohio University, with a specialty in sculpture. Her work on her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree led her to want to teach art, so she obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree at Ohio University and began teaching elementary art. Elaine also had a strong interest in art therapy and social work, so it seemed natural to combine her art background with special education. She became certified in special education, and then continued with her education to receive a Master of Science degree in Education from the University of Dayton.

Elaine now has over twenty years of very diverse experience. She has taught in diverse public school settings, from a small rural community in the Appalachian region of southwest Ohio, to culturally diverse schools in Tacoma, Washington, to inner-city schools in Dayton, Ohio. She has taught regular elementary education (4 th grade), art education, and she has extensive experience teaching elementary students with learning disabilities. Elaine holds a Washington K-12 Continuing Teaching Certificate and is in the process of obtaining her Oregon teaching certificate.