Ms. Chiayi Li is the director of J&R Learning Center. Ms. Li brings with her over 20 years of Montessori teaching and management experience. She received her Master in Montessori Education from Notre Dame de Namur University and has worked as a floater, assistant teacher, teacher, lead teacher, assistant director, and director in the last 20 years all with a Montessori school. In 11 of those years, she worked as the director of a large Montessori school with over 300 students and has a 4+ star Yelp review under her leadership. With over 20 years of teaching experience, she is delighted to bring Montessori philosophy to J&R Learning Center and continues her passion in teaching children.

Ms. Amie Oman is the Assistant Director of J&R Learning Center. Ms. Amie has been in the field of Early Childhood Education since 1992. She is experienced in teaching preschool and toddlers, and has spent the last 19 years beginning as a Directress and later became a Senior Teacher and School Program Coordinator at a large Montessori School. She holds Associate Degrees in Early Childhood Education and Liberal Arts and also holds a Certificate for Inclusion of Special Needs. 

Ms. Renee Olson is the Assistant Director of J&R Learning Center. Ms. Renee has been teaching since 1992 and has experience at both the elementary and preschool levels. For the last 16 years, she has been a head teacher and a volunteer coordinator at a large Montessori Preschool in Sunnyvale. She has her AA degree in liberal arts, as well as 37 units in Child Development courses. She completed her teaching practicum at the De Anza Child Development Center, as well as interning at Colombia Elementary School. She also has experience in physical and occupational therapy, speech and language delays, and motor processing delays.

Ms. Gloria Lan is an experienced teacher in Chinese and creative arts (dance.). She has been in our school program since 2008. She has a master degree in dance choreography and designs programs for performances at J&R Learning Center. She teaches singing and dancing. She is a certified teacher with 12 ECE units and is certified to teach math. She tutors students’ homework on a daily basis and is patient. She loves to help the students to better their skills and believes that a successful and fruitful childhood will lead to success in life. 

Ms. Hongyan Li enjoys working with children. She started volunteering at J&R since 2014 and is proficient in teaching and demonstrating science projects to children. At J&R, she helps after school children with their homework and prepare Chinese lessons. Ms. Li has a background in science and technology. 

Ms. Cathy (Shuo) Ma is a native Mandarin speaker from Beijing who started teaching young kids since 2015. She received her Bachelor of Art in English Literature from Peking University. Now she is studying her Early Childhood Education courses at Mission College. She already received her associate teacher permit in 2019. Now she is teaching Chinese at J&R Learning Center as a Chinese teacher. She loves working with kids. Her understanding of teaching young children is that: “the proper education of the young is not to stuff their heads with words, sentences, and ideas dragged together from various authors, but to open up their minds to the outer world, so that a living stream may flow from their own minds, just as leaves, flowers, and fruits spring from the buds of a tree.”

Ms. Nicole Hu obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language and Literature from Guangzhou University of Teachers, Guangzhou, China. She has been a Chinese teacher for over 20 years since 1999. She has worked at Jia-Ray Learning Center from 8/1/2016, and she teaches Chinese writing, reading, and calligraphy.

Ms. Yvonne Huang started her teaching career after she received her ABRSM piano certificate in 1992. She loves young kids and she teaches piano enrichment classes for preschool and afterschool. Kids have a lot of fun in her classes. She welcomes new teaching opportunities to youth who likes music, and hopes to meet your children soon!