Meet the Teachers

Riana grew up in Northfield, MN and first learned Spanish as a Rotary Exchange Student in Los Andes, Chile where she lived for a year in high school. Riana studied Sociology/ Anthropology with a minor in Latin American Studies at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. During her undergraduate education she studied abroad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where she learned to speak Portuguese. Riana has worked in numerous educational capacities in the metro area including at the Concordia Language Villages, as a bilingual preschool teacher and a teacher's assistant at a bilingual elementary school in Minneapolis. She also served in the U.S Peace Corps in Nicaragua as an Environmental Education Promoter, an assignment which included; planting trees, teaching science in rural schools, making smoke-less stoves, and reading books with students in the shade! Riana's educational passions are in the areas of social and environmental justice. Her personal interests include healthy cooking, biking, reading, and being with friends and family.  Riana received her teaching license and masters in teaching at Hamline University and in spring of 2017 she student taught at an international school in Queretaro, Mexico and then began her formal teaching career here at ISLA last year!

Lina Pinto is a first-grade teacher at ISLA. She is from Paipa, a beautiful town in Colombia. She received her Bachelor of Education Degree in English and Spanish as a Foreign Language in 2015. She later received her Master of Education in Foreign Languages in 2018. She started teaching in 2014 and has taught several grades and subjects since that time at different institutions and levels of education. She then became the director and one of the teachers at “Colegio Senderito del Saber”, an Elementary School in Colombia. After that, she worked at ISLA as a Language Ambassador. When she returned to Colombia, she continued her direction and teaching practices at the previously mentioned elementary school. She additionally spent 2 years teaching pedagogy and English to future teachers at UPTC University. She also supported the online Spanish immersion program for kindergarten at ISLA during the 2020-2021 school year. Teaching is her absolute passion but she has a lot of hobbies which she incorporates into her teaching practices. She loves dancing and was a professional dancer in Colombia for over 8 years. She also plays the piano, loves painting and drawing, and enjoys reading literature books. She loves Rubik’s cubes, big puzzles, board games with family and friends, and traveling around the world.

Luis Vivas grew up in Madrid, Spain, where he lived with his parents, sister and grandmother. He obtained his degree in Elementary Education with a focus in English. While his original trajectory was to study Special Education, his plans changed 12 years ago when he moved to Minnesota to work at an IB Spanish Immersion school. IB was a new perspective for him, which he fell in love with. During Luis’ career, he has been a PLC facilitator, teacher mentor, and equity trainer for colleagues. One of his goals as a classroom teacher is to create a sense of community where everyone has a voice and feels safe to participate and share ideas and opinions. Also, Luis values giving students the opportunity to take ownership over their learning. Professionally, Luis thrives in learning from new experiences and challenges. When he is not working, he enjoys cooking, listening to music, watching movies and spending time with his husband, his kids, and his dog.