Meet the Staff
Anna Tsai was born in China. She lived in Hong Kong for a number of years before moving to the U.S. as a teenager. She received her B.A. from UC Davis and worked as a financial analyst for many years. After staying home with her children for eight years, she decided to go back to school to study Child Development and taught private school for two years. She received her Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from San Jose State University (SJSU).
Beatrice Yu teaches 4th grade English at CLIP. She grew up in San Francisco where she earned a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential with BCLAD. She believes in language immersion and has taught at Adelante Spanish Immersion School and student-taught at Alice Fong Yu Cantonese Immersion School.
Catherine Huang graduated from the University of Florida with an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education. Prior to joining CLIP, she taught in the Chicago Public Schools for six years in grades K–8. She was the first Mandarin immersion teacher at CUSD in 1998.
Chia-Ching Lin has a B.A. in Early Childhood Education and an MA in Education Psychology from the University of Oklahoma. She taught preschool for 6 years prior to joining CLIP. Currently, she holds both Oklahoma and California teaching credentials.
Connie Chan was born in Fujian province and raised in Hong Kong where she was able to learn with three Chinese dialects: Fuzhounese, Mandarin, and Cantonese. Ms. Chan's family moved to the U.S. when she was 14. She went to high school education in Sacramento and to college at UC Berkeley. She received her CLAD Multiple Subject credential from CSU Hayward. She is now working on her M.A. of TESOL (Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages) with Azusa Pacific University. Ms. Chan taught first grade in Fremont from 2001 to 2004 and undergraduate oral English in China from 2004 to 2006.
Derrall Garrison grew up in the multicultural environment of the Bay Area and graduated from San Francisco State with a B.A. in Art History. He also received his CLAD teaching credential from SFSU. He has taught in the Cupertino school district since 2000 and spent five years teaching in the ELD program, also in CUSD. Previously he participated in the art and music scene in San Francisco, helping to run a record label and theater space.
Grace Kuan received a Master 's Degree and teaching credential from the University of Southern California. She was born in New Jersey, but lived in Taiwan for eight years where she attended a bilingual school for middle and high school. She enjoys reading, hiking, and horseback riding during her free time. Prior to joining CLIP, she taught K/1 CLIP classes for the past two summers and taught second grade at Dilworth Elementary during the 2005-2006 school year.
Grace Lee is excited to teach with the CLIP team at Meyerholz. As an traveling educator, Miss Lee brings a B.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures and Economics from Smith College, a Master's degree in Early Childhood Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and New York City public school experiences into her Chinese and English speaking classroom. Miss Lee hopes to inspire her bilingual, bi-literate second graders to become lifelong learners through music, dramatic play, and team building activities. When Miss Lee is not in her classroom, she is adventuring in a foreign country, cooking and eating international cuisines, or learning another language or two.
Grace Robinson was born in Hong Kong, and moved to Taiwan with her family when she was nine years old. She went to Australia for college and in 1993, she came to the US and settled in California. Prior to teaching in CLIP, she taught English language to native Chinese-speaking children in Taiwan for five years and an American middle school for another five years. She really enjoys teaching middle school.
Hong Dong has never stopped trying to be the kind of teacher she would like her own children to have. She wants her students to learn things and never waste their precious time. Her many years of experience with students of various grade levels within and outside CLIP confirms that when students construct their own learning experiences, they retain information longer and become more confident in their abilities. Outside the classroom, she likes to devote her time to playing with her two children.
Jenny Tsang was born and raised in Hong Kong. She graduated from UC Davis in Economics. After a few years of administrative and marketing work and substituting in a music school, Jenny decided to follow her dream to pursue a teaching credential from San Jose State University. She never thinks teaching is working. In her spare time, she enjoys camping and traveling.
Judy Peng migrated to U.S. with her family at age nine. She graduated from Mercy High School in San Francisco, received a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from UC Santa Barbara and her Master's degree at CSU Northridge. She spent two years working on research in cancer treatment therapies and four years at a start-up biotechnology company. She then decided to follow her passion and enrolled in the teacher-credentialing program at CSU Los Angeles. She is very happy to join the Cupertino Union School District where she taught 5th grade English in the CLIP program.
Li Chiang grew up in Taiwan, came to U.S. for her B.A. degree with a major in Business and a minor in Literature. She then returned to Taiwan to teach in a public middle school after graduation. When her marriage brought her back to the States, she worked as substitute teacher for two years. Her passion in teaching drove her to complete her teaching credential in 2007 with BCLAD. She loves the diversity of the Bay area and takes pride in teaching children Chinese.
Ling-Ling Chern graduated from Shih Chien College in Taiwan. She taught in Taiwan in grades Pre-K – 5th. She earned her B.A. from Fresno State University and her M.A./TESOL and computer degree from Fresno Pacific University. Prior to joining CUSD, she taught Chinese to children and adults.
Polly Huang graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a B.S. in Human Development. Throughout her undergraduate years in Davis, she interned in a pre-school, tutored in a public elementary school at Davis and in a children home in Fukushima, Japan. She then earned a Multiple-Subject credential with CLAD (Cross-cultural, Language and Academic Development) emphasis. She is excited about teaching in a dual-language immersion program.
Richard Kuan earned his B.A. in International Trade from the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. He earned his teaching credential from San Francisco State University (SFSU) and is completing his Master's degree and credential for Adult Education at SFSU. He is very happy to become a member of our staff and dedicating his time to CLIP.
