Urban Faculty

Mia joined the Foreign Language Department at Urban in 2016.  She earned her MA in Foreign Language Education at New York University and also received training at National Taiwan Normal University and Renmin University of China. She has taught all levels of Chinese, and has worked in both independent and public school settings around New York City. One of Mia’s greatest passions is promoting and enhancing communications between different cultures. She believes that learning Chinese - a tonal language that uses ideograms - helps train the brain in new radical ways and offer the learners other perspectives to see our world.

Steve joined Urban in 2001 and has taught all levels of Spanish for 23 years.  He has also chaired 2 world language departments for a total of 15 years, first in a public high school setting and later at Urban.  He earned his BA at SUNY Binghamton, MA at UC Berkeley and Teaching Credential at San Francisco State.  He has been a member of AATSP (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese), CLTA (California Language Teachers Association) and FLANC (Foreign Language Association of Northern California) and has presented at CAIS (California Association of Independent Schools) on native and heritage speakers in the second language classroom.  He works to motivate his students to be passionate and proficient Spanish speakers who are engaged with the language and culture personally, academically and professionally over the course of their lives.  

Born in Easton, Pennsylvania, Raina has dedicated her life to Spanish studies. She earned a B.A. from Dickinson College in 2001 and a Masters in Education of Spanish from Pace University in 2006. Raina brings to Urban a keen understanding of the intricacies of language and cross-cultural understanding, having lived in Spain, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Raina began her career as an educator in 2001 and has worked in both independent and public school settings in Pennsylvania, New York and Puerto Rico. Ms. Mast fosters interdisciplinary learning and provides students with the opportunity to think critically and express themselves uniquely while learning the standardized skills of the Spanish curriculum. Raina also teaches journalism at Urban and the advisor for the school's newspaper.