With the 2023-2024 school year underway, returning students will see many changes to the MFS Spanish Department. In the Middle and Upper School, the department parted ways with teachers Robert Nasatir and Jennifer Branscom, while welcoming Emily Romero ’88 and Moises Reyes Pagan. Additionally, the Lower School Spanish curriculum, which was previously stopped in approximately 2015, will start again this year.
For the past seven years, Nasatir served as the chair of the World Languages Department, accompanying his role as a Spanish teacher. According to colleague Josefina Paolello, who will replace Nasatir as interim chair, Nasatir’s impact on the Language Department was immeasurable: “He brought in a new energy. Right before he was [department chair], we were looking into moving more into communicative skills, not only writing but speaking. And that’s also what he brought — a lot of changes into the curriculum.”
Nasatir also brought a cheerful presence to the school, radiating positive energy. When passing students in the hallways, he always greeted them with a smile and a friendly, “Hola hola hola!” Nasatir’s former student Anna Thompson ’25 said, “[Students] knew that [Nasatir] could make us laugh every day throughout class, and he always reached out when people were struggling.”
Having held the World Languages Department Chair position seven years ago, prior to Nasatir’s hiring, Paolello is the natural fit while the school conducts, as she puts it, “a good search.” This allows MFS to thoroughly search for a new faculty member to serve as chair while leaving the department in secure hands. However, she noted significant changes the department has experienced since she had served as chair: “Now, not only are the [teaching] materials different, but I think that we have had a lot of growth as a department. I think it will be fun … just to do it for a year.”
Nasatir and Branscom were responsible for teaching classes to both Middle Schoolers and Upper Schoolers. Additionally, both teachers were advisors, Nasatir with an 11th-12th grade advisory and Branscom with a ninth-10th grade advisory. To fill these roles, MFS has hired Romero and Reyes Pagan.
Romero is an MFS alum, who previously taught Spanish, French, and an elective in Italian at MFS from 2005-2011. A native Spanish speaker who also studied abroad in France, Romero will teach both Middle and Upper School classes, as well as lead a ninth-10th grade advisory. Previously, Romero worked in Rowan University’s International Education Department, as well as the American Institute for Foreign Study. Romero expressed an intrinsic value behind her work: “I love languages. I’m passionate about it. I’m really excited to continue that, because it’s already here [at MFS].”
Reyes Pagan, a native Spanish speaker who grew up in Puerto Rico, will be teaching four Spanish classes in the Middle School. For the past three years, Reyes Pagan has been teaching both middle school Spanish and English as a Second Language (ESL) at the Pan American Charter School. A newcomer to the Quaker practices at MFS, Reyes Pagan is eager to learn more about the school’s practices and to be immersed in its rich history: “The school’s history and Quakerism are just interesting to me. And that the school takes time to be in silence, to meditate … people can get their thoughts together and find that inner light. I think that’s awesome.”
Coincidentally, the Lower School is reopening its Spanish curriculum this year. When coding was originally introduced and taught as a language, Spanish was removed. According to Jenel Giles, the Head of Lower School, bringing the Lower School Spanish curriculum back “is part of the global engagement piece of the strategic plan.”
Lower School students between kindergarten and second grade will meet three times a week for 30 minutes at a time. Their teacher, Evie Escarra, will be immersing them in an environment that promotes their Spanish learning — one that is nearly entirely Spanish-speaking. Giles said that students are “going to be spending 90% of their time in the target language. So it’s an immersive experience. You’re hearing it, you’re being encouraged to speak it, you’re writing it, you’re seeing it, so that, you know, it’s more multisensory … This is a special that’s going to push into classrooms and is really connected to the existing curriculum.”
Although these large-scale changes are happening simultaneously at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, Giles said that the timing was “coincidental.” Regardless, the upcoming school year marks a time of change for both the Spanish and World Language departments as a whole.
