Teachers

Jamie was born in Hayward, CA and lived in Graham, WA until she was 13. She spent the summer before her senior year of high school working at the Tiny Tots program in Sonora before graduating from Laguna Creek High School in Elk Grove, CA.

Growing up, Jamie always loved taking care of children and and initially went to college at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, CA to become a pediatric oncology nurse. After moving back to the Sacramento area, Jamie eventually ended up living in Sonora and attending Columbia in order to focus on completing school. It was in Sonora, while working at a local barn teaching children to ride horses, that she changed her focus in school from one life passion to another: equine science.

After deciding to do a complete 180-degree switch in majors, Jamie moved to Quincy, CA to attend Feather River College and graduated in 2013 with four separate degrees in Equine Science, General Agriculture, Agricultural Sciences, and Liberal Arts, including a focus in Child Development.

Throughout her schooling, Jamie has worked at several different preschools and has spent eight years working with children from 6 weeks to 12 years of age. She also works at a local barn teaching children and adults both horsemanship and western riding, and enjoys working under large animal veterinarians in both general health care as well as breeding.

In her spare time Jamie enjoys reading, painting, quilting, writing, horseback riding, yoga, photography, scrap-booking, hiking, and relaxing while watching a good TV show or movie.

Jodi Gates was born in Iowa City, Iowa. She moved to Antioch, California with her parents and younger brother when she was 3 Years old.

After graduating high school she attended California State University working towards a degree in psychology. While attending college she worked for the Head Start program in schools all over Sacramento County. When she moved back to Antioch she began working for Starbucks Coffee Company and The Family Stress Center based in Concord, CA. While at the Family Stress Center she mentored youth with mental illness. While this job was extremely rewarding she moved on to work at the Fine Arts Preschool in Walnut Creek, CA and continued at Starbucks. In the meantime, her boyfriend, now husband, applied for a job in Tuolumne County. He received an IT position with the county and they moved to Sonora.

Jodi transferred to Sonora with Starbucks and continued to work for the company for seven years. The perks were great. She got married to Jamie and they had two little girls, Julia and Jenna. After Jenna was born Jodi became part of the team at Safari Learning Academy, the perks here are even better. She loves teaching children and helping them to find their voice. Jodi became the Head Toddler Teacher in the toddler program in 2015.

When Jodi is not working she loves to spend time with her family. They love hiking and camping. Every year Jodi and her husband hike to the top of half dome in Yosemite.

Katlynd was born in Oakley, CA and lived on 10 rural acres with her Mother, Father and younger sister and a host of animals. Her Grandparents, Aunt and Cousins also lived on the property. In 2009 Katlynd’s entire family picked up and moved to Calaveras County.

Katlynd always knew she wanted to be a teacher, even as a child she would have her cousins and sister play school with her or teach them a dance routine to perform for the parents. During Katlynd’s junior year of high school she began volunteering after school at the preschool in San Andreas, she also worked in the preschool program at Calaveras High School throughout her senior year. Katlynd graduated from Calaveras High School and is currently attending Columbia College where she is working towards her AS in Child Development.

In her spare time Katlynd loves to read, listen to music and enjoys adventures in the outdoors. Katlynd loves spending time with her family, family is everything to her.

Kurt was born and raised in Groveland, CA where he currently lives with his wife, Katie, Marcus and his new baby, Gwendolyn.

He graduated from Tioga High School and worked for Wrighton Construction (helped on the Safari remodel). Kurt completed his Child Development units at Columbia College and then studied to become a firefighter on the Groveland Hotshot crew.

He now works on an engine and teaches classes for the Forest Service. In off season and his days off, he often comes in and helps at Safari. On the weekends (when not on a fire) Kurt keeps up our Safari floors. His interests are playing with his wife and children, snowboarding, traveling, eating and hanging out with friends and family.

Jessica moved back to her hometown of Sonora, CA two years ago from Los Angeles. Her first experience working with children was after high school when she coached gymnastics and discovered her passion for working with children.

In Los Angeles Jessica taught music classes at Gymboree and gained over four years of experience working as a nanny. It was after working with so many kids that Jessica realized that she wanted to continue her education to become a teacher. She graduated with honors from Columbia College with an AA degree in Liberal Studies with an emphasis on teaching. She is planning on continuing her education at CSU Stanislaus.

While living in Los Angeles, Jessica got to explore her other passions by studying holistic medicine, becoming a yoga teacher, singing and playing guitar. As the music and movement teacher in the toddler program she is excited to be able to combine most of these passions and use them to create an enjoyable experience for the children. Jessica’s hobbies include yoga, writing music, being outside in nature, and reading. In addition to working at Safari she also teaches yoga classes in Sonora.

Alisha was born in Merced CA and grew up in Winton CA. She moved to Copperopolis in June of 2013.

She loves being around kids and has always done thing that involves kids. She has worked at First Church of God as a care provider for kids for a little over a year. She also volunteered as a leader for a ids group called Awanas at Atwater Community Bible church for several years.

Even though she loved working with kids she wasn’t sure if she wanted to work with kids long term even though her family told her that she should get some type of job working with kids. After taking her first Child Development class she decided that she really enjoyed it and decided that she wanted to become a teacher.

Alisha Graduated from Central Valley Christian School in 2007 and in 2013 she successfully completed her AA Degree in Child Development at Merced College. She plans on furthering her education in the future.

When Alisha is not working with children she enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, watching movies, scrapbooking, hiking, camping and would like to start getting into photography. In the future she would like to travel to Paris, Ireland, and Greece.

Terri was born in Sonora, CA. She was second generation to be born in Tuolumne County on both her dad and mom’s side. She has two younger brothers, two nieces, three nephews, five great nieces and one great nephew.

She attended a one room school, Wards Ferry Elementary, from first through seventh grade. She graduated from Curtis Creek in 1969 and went to Sonora Union High School where she graduated in January of 1973. She earned the Bank of America Business Award her graduating year.

Growing up, she always wanted to be a school teacher and use to torture her brothers into playing school. While in high school she had great typing and secretarial skills and teachers pushed her in the direction of secretarial, which she pursued. She went to work for the Tuolumne County Court Reporter in January of 1973. She worked there for two years also filling in for the Superior Court Judge as secretary when his secretary became ill.

She then went to work for a local Attorney and worked for him for eight years. He closed his business and she went to work as a Legal Secretary for the Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office. She got married and quit work to be a housewife. That was not fulfilling enough and she opened her own business typing California State Parole Hearings for eight years with a contract through the State of California.

When the contract was up, she went to work to fill in for a school secretary that was ill at Columbia Elementary and ended up being hired as an aide and part-time secretary. Again, her great secretarial skills pulled her into the office full time and away from the kids. That again was not satisfying and she joined AmeriCorp to be able to go back to college and pursue teaching. She was a tutor and aide for Soulsbyville and Jamestown Elementary School. Jamestown hired her as an aide and she worked there for ten years.

At that time, she also attended full-time college and took 24 units of Child Development, two teaching classes and liberal studies earning 94 college units at Columbia and Modesto Junior College. She also has attended every workshop and class she could for working with developmentally disabled children. She has worked with several autistic children, bi-polar, and other special needs children.

While working at Jamestown she again ended up doing more secretarial than teaching and saw an ad in the newspaper for a teaching job at Safari Learning Academy. She immediately contacted us, and was hired making her dream of teaching come true. She is currently teaching a K-1 class at Safari as well as being the Administrative Secretary to the Director of Safari and founder of Zoo-phonics®, Inc.

She lives in a house on the property that is owned by her parents and helps take care of her mom who is 82, but still going strong. Her dad died in 2008 and she still misses him desperately.

Denise was born in Sonora, CA but her family moved to Tulare, CA when she was only a few years old. She spent most of her childhood there and remembers learning Zoo-phonics® at Garden Elementary School with Mrs. Lawson. When Denise started high school her family moved back to the Mother Lode area and they have been here ever since.

Denise is attends Columbia College and is working toward her AS in Child Development. After taking her first child development class she knew that she had found her niche. Denise is the oldest of four siblings and one foster sibling. She has always loved children; she loved playing with her younger siblings and cousins. In her spare time she likes to sing, take pictures, read, play games, grow plants, and spend time with her family. She believes that children are a gift from God.

Christine was born and raised in San Francisco, CA and moved to Tuolumne County in the 1980’s with her husband Allen and resides in the Twain Harte area.

Christine has a certificate in Early Childhood Development from Columbia College. She has worked with children for 20 years and hopes to instill good values, and a desire to learn and be well educated.

Christine loves people, church, art, music, traveling (recently enjoyed a 3-week trip to Italy) and history. She teaches our “after-nap” students providing them with art projects and fine motor coordination activities. She reads stories to the children and takes them for outdoor play. Christine has taught at Safari since it opened in 2007.

Beth grew up in the California East Bay after moving from her birth place of Chicago Heights, IL.

She graduated from Tennyson High School then received her first AA degree in Commercial Art and a second AA degree in Early Childhood Development from Chabot College. She continued to take photography and fine art classes, figure drawing and oil painting for fun, and took American Sign Language.

At first Beth thought she would follow in her dad’s footsteps in Advertising but hated it! So she proceeded with Early Childhood Development. Thirty some years later she is still at it!

As a child her family camped and spent many happy times locally in the Sierra foothills and mountains. She fell in love with this area and always felt more at home here. She felt “homesick” whenever she had to return to the Bay Area.

Beth always knew she wanted to live here. Finally, after a divorce, she decided to make the move. It was very scary not having a job or knowing a soul. But she was blessed by finding a tiny cottage for rent owned by a Sonora family. It even came with a rent-a-teen and a rent-a-dog.

At the time she was doing In Home Care for hospice patients and the elderly. She really loved that work and met many wonderful people. Three years ago she moved back to Hayward to assist her own elderly mother. After her mom’s death, Beth returned to her sweet little home here in the Mother Lode.

Currently she is active at Calvary Chapel and enjoys gardening, camping, taking nature hikes, fishing and painting in watercolors, acrylics and oils. She is very grateful to be living her dream here in Sonora!