GALA Welcoming Hours & June Open Houses Starting on June 1st, GALA is open for Welcoming Hours to give tours and answer questions every Monday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and Wednesdays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Please come and check us out!
Also, students, families, and interested community members are invited to GALA's upcoming open houses, Wednesday June 9th at 5:00 p.m. and Saturday June 11th at 10:00 a.m., to learn more about attendance during the 2016/2017 school year (please note: we are only enrolling K-1 for this school year), tour the school, and meet members of GALA's staff and board. Please share this opportunity with your friends and family!
Gratitude for Cleveland's Generous Community - KeyBank and Forest City
GALA would like to extend our gratitude to both KeyBank and Forest City Enterprises for their generous corporate donation of furniture to GALA, including a donation of chairs, filing cabinets, desks, computer tables, and conference tables. As a start-up school, GALA depends on the thoughtful donations of corporate partners like KeyBank and Forest City to help us set up our classrooms. We greatly appreciate this important contribution to GALA!
Upcoming Community Events
Springtime means its festival time in Cleveland! GALA will have an information table at several Cleveland community festivals, Please stop by and visit us at:
7th Annual Cleveland Asian Festival Saturday & Sunday, May 21 & 22 from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Payne Avenue, between E. 30th and E.27th in Cleveland
The Cleveland Asian Festival is a celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage, to unite the community through collaboration and recognition of its culture, diversity, and people. The Festival features: Authentic Asian Foods, Merchandise, Performances, and Activities!
La Placita (The Marketplace)
Saturday, June 11th from 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.
3104 W. 25th St. (US Bank parking lot), Cleveland, 44109
Cleveland's Hispanic themed market, La Placita, is a pop-up open-air market that will promote the neighborhood’s Hispanic culture as a community identity by creating a destination that fosters economic development in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood.
Faces Around GALA
GALA is excited to begin to introduce the families at GALA - Meet Michelle Pizzuli, a parent at GALA!
What grade/program is your child(ren) enrolled in?
My daughter Maya will be starting in the Spanish Kindergarten program in August, and her brother Nico will be following in a couple of years.
Why are you excited about GALA?
I am excited for GALA for so many reasons, it's really hard to narrow them down. The advantages of knowing more than one language are undeniable: there are social, cognitive, career/economic benefits. But for me it goes beyond that. I fell in love with languages from my first French class in the sixth grade; and I then fell in love with Spanish in college. Much of our world's beauty lies in the diversity and richness of its people; different cultures, customs, traditions, stories and languages.
Although I am a non-native Spanish speaker, when my little one was still growing in the womb, I decided that I would teach her Spanish from day one. It has been a rewarding, yet difficult journey to embark on alone. Although Cleveland is rich with diversity, there are surprisingly few resources that truly support language learning.
After meeting GALA’s Founding Director, Meran Rogers, at the Asian Festival two years ago, I became kind of obsessed with GALA and its mission. Meran and the founding staff of GALA are truly inspiring and dedicated individuals who are changing what education looks like in Cleveland. I'm excited for Maya to be part of the first cohort of Cleveland's first language immersion school!
Tell us about yourself
After graduating from the University of Montana with B.A. in Spanish and Education, I spent many exciting years working in both private and public schools, as well as a local non-profit where I led an after school program for Hispanic youth in the community. After several years of working in education, my career path took a twist as I decided to open up a business with my brother. I am currently co-owner of a small (but growing) burrito shop on West 25th Street, Ohio City Burrito.
Although I am no longer working in the education field, I am very passionate about education and our community's youth, and am still actively involved with Esperanza, Inc. as a mentor and volunteer. I grew up in a western suburb of Cleveland, and after college settled down and bought my first home in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, where I currently live with my two children, one big dog, a new kitty and handful of chickens.
What is your favorite thing to do and/or place to go in Cleveland?
We love to play outside together and explore the wilds of Ohio. One of our favorite hiking spots is Hinckley Reservation's Whipp's Ledges, where the kids' sense of adventure really comes alive. We also love to attend local dance, music and performing arts events. Since seeing our first performance at Talespinner Children's Theatre last year, we have not missed a show...they put on a truly enchanting performance for the whole family. The kids (and myself) are always asking "when can we go back?"!
Share your favorite quote/proverb.
"In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught."
-Baba Dioum, Senegal
What grade/program is your child(ren) enrolled in?
