In the 2021-2022 school year, we are giving a warm welcome to Ms.Vargas, our new ENL teacher here in Hampton Bays. She grew up in Bellport, Long Island and has always stayed on Long Island. She is Ecuadorian, El Salvadorian, and Russian. She grew up with her older brother who is now a professional boxer. 

Ms. Vargas received her education at Cortland College in New York. She originally wanted to be a Spanish or Italian teacher, but changed her topic of interest to speech methodology. Soon she realized she could “combine speech methodology and Spanish” to teach ENL. ENL is English as a New Language, for those students who are new to the language of English in our school. 

She started teaching last September in Smithtown as an ENL teacher and came here to the Hampton Bays district last February as a leave replacement for Ms. Edwards.  She has continued teaching ENL this current year as a full-time teacher. She was looking forward to a new opportunity where she could teach the course she was interested in and had a degree in, and Hampton Bays was the best fit. 

The smaller size of our school has made it possible to give Ms. Vargas a warm welcome and has made it easier for her to create a connection with her students. Her goal for herself this year is to be able to “build strong relationships with her students” and for her students to “exceed their abilities” as they are learning a new language. 

When Ms. Vargas isn’t in a classroom, she enjoys dancing. Specifically, she is into Spanish dancing and hip-hop dancing. Throughout high school she also played sports such as volleyball which helped her stay active.