New Teachers Fall 2021

Eric Vences has been teaching Spanish for almost three years, previously teaching at Design Tech High School and Everest Public High School in Redwood City. He is currently teaching Spanish I and II at Burlingame.   He lived in Watsonville for half of his life before moving to San Jose. Vences grew up speaking Spanish at home, which was a big factor in his decision to pursue the language...

Taylor White, or as his students adorn him, Mr. Taylor, has had anything but a typical career path. White went from pursuing law, getting his comparative literature major, to then taking a chance on teaching English Second Language (ESL) in Seoul, South Korea. “As I was about to start law school I realized that I had no interest in becoming a lawyer, which is maybe not a good place to be if y...

After 13 years as a stay-at-home mom following her brief teaching career, Carol Hardesty returns to the math classroom, a subject she has always been passionate about.  Being a successful math student as a child, Hardesty looks to share her empathy and experience with her new students.  “Math is a subject where it requires prior knowledge, and if [students] don’t have that, it is hard for them,” ...

Andrea “Andi” Mosqueda is Burlingame’s new health technician. She keeps track of student health records, helps ill or injured students and deals with students that are sick or handling COVID-19 issues. Previously, Mosqueda studied cosmetology at Skyline College and worked as a hairstylist for eight years. However, with the arrival of the pandemic, she felt she needed a new direction. �...

When Reema Asia was younger, she viewed reading and writing as a complete waste of time.   "I absolutely hated school —  I didn't want to do any of it," Asia said.   Now, Burlingame welcomes Asia as the new freshman teacher in the English department.   Asia's feelings about school started to shift in ninth grade when she and her family moved to Palestine. There, the educat...

Roxanna Moreno is an attendance office staff member at Burlingame. This is her first year working at Burlingame, but she has already become acclimated to this school environment.  With previous experience working in district offices, Moreno is quite familiar with the atmosphere of academic workspaces. Before working at Burlingame, Moreno worked at the San Mateo Foster City School District office for ...

Kelsey Fjell-Walton, a new freshman biology teacher at Burlingame, previously taught at Humboldt State School for two years. Fjell-Walton has been working in the science department as a natural science teacher. Burlingame is much larger than Humboldt, Fjell-Walton said, and she has many more students in her classes here. The biology teacher enjoys the larger population because it also allows fo...

San Mateo County-born Katharine Bosinoff was inspired to teach Spanish after learning from a life-changing Spanish teacher at Aragon High School.  After graduating from Aragon, Bosinoff went to Loyola Marymount University, where she majored in Spanish. She lived in Spain for a year and a half, studying abroad in Madrid. After receiving her credentials at the University of San Francisco, she retu...

After majoring in criminology and preparing to become a probation officer, Leslie Escoto realized her calling was to help high school students achieve educational success.  Growing up in Redwood City, Escoto was inspired by her father, a police officer, to study sociology with an emphasis on criminology at the California State University of Stanislaus. After graduating, Escoto’s view on the rel...

Elizabeth Wall brings compassion and personal experience to her new position as Burlingame’s special education teacher. Currently, she teaches specialized academic instruction, U.S. government and directed studies. “I wanted to teach special education because I had a lot of learning issues growing up. I have the empathy and understand the struggle,” Wall said. With this determination, Wal...

Matt Pham is a special education teacher at Burlingame. Although he has only been working here for less than two months, he has already become an established part of the school community. Pham has 10 years of experience in education and has taught grade levels ranging from elementary school to high school. However, his progression through the teaching world started with being a substitute teacher. ...

This year, Marc Martin transitioned from teaching freshman and sophomore English to teaching special education core classes. Martin currently teaches directed studies, geometry and biology. Martin partially attributes his desire to teach math to his wife.   “My wife, Mrs. Martin, has been teaching math for 30-some-odd years, and it’s something I’ve always been comfortable and confide...

Burlingame is welcoming Maureen Seto, the new library technician, as an addition to the faculty.    Having previously worked as a staff assistant in the administrative office at Mills High School, Seto was excited for a change.   “I decided to switch over to being a librarian because it gave me the opportunity to interact with kids more on a daily basis,” Seto said.  ...

Denise Burch left her long-time role as an attendance clerk at Burlingame for a change of pace, becoming a counseling staff assistant. “I was the attendance clerk for almost eight years,” Burch said. “Before that, I was in Special Ed for about five years.” However, due to her desire for a new position while staying at Burlingame, Burch decided to take the counseling assistant opportu...