Finding a French Teacher

When Chris Hughes, our French teacher of 20+ years, told us in May that this would be her last year at Burgundy we were devastated. Chris has built an amazing French program over the past two decades and has been an integral part of our community in so many ways. How could we replace her? How could we hire someone remotely?

Given the time of year, we had to quickly move through our stages of grieving and get to work on hiring. We posted the job and began collecting resumes. Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth and the members of the World Language department sprang in action, conducting initial interviews with likely candidates via Zoom. In total we interviewed 9 candidates with experience (and locations) around the world. This position created a high degree of interest, and we were pleased to receive many qualified candidates as well as many candidates from diverse backgrounds.

We narrowed our search down to four finalists who continued the journey to part two of the process—the Zoom lesson! Chris provided Elizabeth with a list of rising 5th and 6th grade students and most readily agreed to take part in the candidate lessons. They participated in these 30-40 minute classes and then stayed on the Zoom to discuss their thoughts about each candidate with Elizabeth and the teachers on the hiring committee. Their engagement in the lessons as well as their thoughtful feedback proved invaluable in the process! Several of the candidates sent Elizabeth notes following the classes to comment on how impressed they were with the students’ French skill and enthusiasm. Special thanks to Anna M., Santiago F., Emma A., Felipe A., Kimi S., Tommy C., Aria T., David F., and Zeki H. for their work during this process!

Once lessons were over, candidates participated in a final interview with the entire hiring committee: Pat Harden, Maria Espinoza, Marisa Munoz, Chiquita McCoy, Jared Givarz, Carrie Ustun, Jeff Sindler, and Elizabeth Lener. Following these, we held a committee meeting to discuss our finalists and made a unanimous decision to offer Mansa Cagua the position. And to our delight, she said oui!

Mansa Cagua comes to us from Westminster School in Annandale where she has taught French for eight years, and led her department for the last three. She has taught elementary through high school aged students during her 15 year teaching career. Mansa holds a B.A. in French Language with a minor in Linguistics from The College of William and Mary.

Mansa has visited her new school twice and is already hard at work with Chris Hughes to become familiar with our French curriculum. She will begin training in the AIM methodology this summer as well. We look forward to seeing our program continue to flourish and benefit from the years of experience and knowledge Mansa brings to Burgundy.

We are proud of our thorough process and so thankful to everyone who dedicated their time and energy to finding our new French teacher.