Ms. Stanford grew up in upstate New York and went to college at the University of Vermont, where she double-majored in Religion and Asian Studies. Ms. Stanford studied abroad in Japan her junior year, and after graduating, returned to Japan to teach elementary and middle school English through the JET Programme for two years. Upon returning to the U.S, she worked for an independent bookstore and read as many books as possible as she searched for the best way to become a teacher here in the US. That search sent her to Boston, where she worked as first an Americorps math tutor, then a kindergarten associate teacher, at Match Community Day Charter School, while starting her master's degree. Ms. Stanford graduated from the Sposato Graduate School of Education with a Master's in Effective Teaching in the fall of 2018. She loves the magic of kindergarten, especially teaching her scholars to read and work together, and has been happy to call Alma del Mar (and New Bedford!), her home since 2017.