Alana Anderson

Growing up in New Jersey, Alana spent her childhood listening to her grandmother, a lifelong educator, share the joys of her students and classroom. She decided to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps and major in elementary education and art at The College of New Jersey. In her final year of college, she had the opportunity to student teach at an international school in La Paz, Bolivia. This opened the door to a full-time position at the international school and would change the trajectory of her career in education.

During her time in Bolivia, she developed an entirely new perspective and appreciation for the messy and difficult process of learning a new language. A portion of her students were English learners from across the globe, and she was challenged to develop her limited Spanish proficiency in her day-to-day life. Upon returning to the U.S., she earned her MEd in Teaching English as a Second Language. Over the past ten years, Alana has worked as a Multilingual Learner (ML) Specialist and ML Coordinator at the K–12 and community college levels. Her years of experience in these roles have prepared her to support the ML students at FernLeaf!

When not working with students or continuing to advance her Spanish language proficiency, Alana can be found exploring the woods of WNC with her husband and two sons or running roads and trails with friends. Alana has a passion for traveling and experiencing new cultures, and she travels with her family as much as possible. She is excited to be a part of the FernLeaf team!