Our Languages Faculty

Heidi O'Connor

Heidi O’Connor

Modern & Classical Languages Department Chair
hoconnor@nya.org
Ms. O’Connor’s Page

Heidi H. O’Connor joined the NYA faculty in 2000 as a teacher of Spanish and French language. In addition to her teaching duties, Heidi serves on the Admissions committee. She received her B.A. from the University of New Hampshire, where she majored in Spanish. While at NYA, she has organized and led student travel to Barcelona, Spain.

Her love of travel and languages is inherent. She grew up at and attended boarding school where her father chaired the foreign language department. Heidi spent summers visiting relatives in Europe or living with maternal Spanish and German grandparents. She studied in Spain her junior year of high school and college. Heidi has traveled throughout Africa, the Caribbean, China, Europe, Mexico, and the United States on educational business and for pleasure.

Heidi enjoys boating, biking, skiing and Bananagrams. She lives in Falmouth with her husband and two children. Her golden retriever, Lucy, often accompanies her in the classroom.

Marissa Markonish

mmarkonish@nya.org
Mrs. Markonish’s Page

Marissa Markonish has been teaching Latin in both middle and upper school at NYA since 1995. She graduated with a BA in Classics from Wesleyan University and spent a semester in Rome at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies. She went on to earn an MAT in Latin and Classical Humanities from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where middle school teaching was a major focus of her graduate studies. She spent a year teaching Latin on the island of Maui (who knew that Hawaiians studied Latin?) before settling down in the (almost as) beautiful state of Maine. Marissa is thrilled to be taking on her new role as Head of Middle School and to be teaching Latin 1A and1B once again.

Marissa finds great pleasure in the complexity of the Latin language and loves sharing the intricate puzzle of Latin with her students. It is her goal as a teacher to teach students how to think and to challenge them to push themselves to the next level. Marissa is also passionate about introducing students to service to others through activities such as NYA’s Make-A-Wish committee.

Marissa has a great interest in linguistics and has taught an Etymologies course for 7th-9th graders with the Center for Talented Youth for many summers. She is also passionate about travel, leading two NYA student trips to Italy and Greece, coordinating summer homestays in Maine for students from Spain, and traveling with her family as often as she can. Marissa lives in Raymond with her husband Ross, Chair of the English Department at NYA; their two children, Alex and Luke; and their cat, Vanilla. In her “off time,” Marissa loves spending time with her immediate and extended family, taking day trips, and reading mysteries.

Patia Maule

pmaule@nya.org
Ms. Maule’s Page

Patia (Pay-shuh) Maule, class of ’99, returned to NYA to teach Spanish in 2004 after studying ethnomusicology and Spanish at Oberlin College. She has studied Spanish in Cuba, Spain, Costa Rica, and Mexico, and she has taught Spanish 1, 2, 3, and AP. She is passionate about the obvious things (culture, history, people, music, etc.) but she also thinks that the nitty gritty details of the language (grammar and mechanics) are actually really cool. She loves to travel to Spanish-speaking countries and has taken three trips abroad with NYA students (Costa Rica in 2008 and 2010, Barcelona in 2009). She also loves the fact that professional development and “studying” Spanish mean traveling, talking to people, reading, watching movies, and listening to lots of music … in other words, having a ton of fun.

Also a talented musician, Patia plays the fiddle, piano, and steel drum in a Portland-based folk bluegrass quartet and Ian Ramsey’s community steel band, Pan Fried Steel. She taught ear training/sight singing/piano arranging at Bowdoin College part time from 2003 to 2007. She listens voraciously to most music, but especially loves Chris Thile & The Punch Brothers, Radiohead, Liz Carroll, and Wilco. When not teaching, traveling, or playing music, she can be found in her vegetable garden, where she attempts to stay one step ahead of the deer and the tomato hornworms through various nefarious means. She makes a big batch of pickles every August and digs her potatoes in the fall, and she thinks that SunGold Cherry Tomatoes right off the vine are about as good as it gets.

Karin Hoppenbrouwers

khoppenbrouwers@nya.org
Ms. Hoppenbrouwers’s Page

Karin Hoppenbrouwers is in her fifteenth year of teaching, but only arrived at NYA in 2007. Previously she taught high school Latin at various independent schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey. She earned her B.A. in Classics (Greek & Latin) from Yale College, and has completed coursework and general exams for her Latin M.A. at the University of Georgia. At NYA, Karin teaches Latin – first in the middle school for three years, and currently in the upper school. She also teaches a core sixth grade course called Classical Foundations.

In addition to teaching in a formal school setting, Karin has experience working one-on-one with adults (primarily from Korea and Japan) learning English as a Second Language. She has also done extensive private tutoring of both children and adults in her other native language, German. Finally, Karin spent a year working in a vet’s office, satisfying her love of animals while clarifying her desire to remain in the classroom long-term!

Apart from work, Karin enjoys the outdoors, riding her bike and taking walks – in her neighborhood as well as along trails in nearby state parks. She has travelled since childhood, visiting 5 continents along the way. Her most recent trips took her to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany and Namibia. National road trips in the past few years have taken her to New Mexico, Colorado, and North Dakota. Wherever she goes, Karin immerses herself in the local flora and fauna, her binoculars her constant companion; birds are her special passion. Karin is a voracious reader of both modern and classic fiction, and an avid player of board games. Karin lives in Brunswick with her husband and four cats.

Mary Farsaci

mfarsaci@nya.org
Ms. Farsaci’s Page

Mary Farsaci has been teaching Spanish at NYA since 2008. Mary’s path to teaching began with a love of Spanish and a love of Spain. A graduate of Saint Anselm College (B.A. in English and Spanish) and Bowling Green State University (M.A. in Spanish), Mary studied in Granada and Seville as an undergraduate, spent a year in Alcalá de Henares as a graduate student, and finally lived for a year in the center of Madrid, teaching English at a bilingual high school. Her favorite memories from her final year in Madrid include running through Parque del Retiro, enjoying delicious tapas and outdoor cafés with friends, long Sunday walks from one end of the city to the other, and finally mastering “real life” tasks in Spanish like renting an apartment, babysitting, banking, and grocery shopping.

In addition to travelling, Mary likes to take on physical challenges in interesting locations. She has run half marathons in Portland, Maine and Hell, Michigan, has run a full marathon in Memphis, Tennessee, and has hiked five hundred miles of the Camino de Santiago across the north of Spain.

In 2006, Mary left behind the bustle of Spanish city life and European travels to return to the natural beauty and more tranquil pace of her native Maine. However, life outside of school is far from calm as Mary has undertaken the new and exciting adventure of motherhood!