Montecito Academy

About the director: Kori Rider,  Santa Barbara native, is an educator and language enthusiast who has done graduate work at Middlebury College, Harvard University, University of California Santa Barbara, Universidad de Belgrano, and Azusa Pacific University. She has traveled, worked, studied, and lived in over 35 countries worldwide and has taught Spanish and English at the collegiate, secondary, and primary levels at public and private institutions both locally and internationally. She has a Multiple Teaching Credential and Single California teaching credentials in a variety of subjects, as well as BCLAD, TESL & TOEFL certifications.  She has spent many years living with the poor throughout Central America and prior to starting Montecito Academy worked in Nueva Vida and Leon, Nicaragua where she ran Nika Collective, an organization she founded that helped single mothers break the cycle of poverty through education, skill development, and job creation.  Prior to that, she worked in Honduras on getting a school accredited through the Honduran Ministry of Education and wrote grants for the UNDP.  After work, she can be found surfing, walking the beach, and hiking up one of the local trails.