Grace V. Sotomayor Mantri

Grace V. Sotomayor Mantri is an educator with 10+ years teaching the Spanish language to all levels and ages, specializing in the age group of elementary and middle-grade students. Born in Puerto Rico, and raised Stateside, Grace’s experiences of in-betweenness and multi-faceted diversity within her own family have shaped not only her identity, but also her pedagogy, as she gives a window to her students of a world often different from their own. She is a TEDx Creative Coast 2019 speaker, a curriculum designer and Cultural Competence & Empathy director of her school community. Apart from being a heritage speaker, Grace went on to study and acquire French at university as well as Polish while living abroad in Łódź (pronounced “Wooj”), Poland. Grace’s next challenge is to learn Bengali, the native language of her favorite human, also known as her husband DJ, of Indian nationality. She values family, community, her faith, and humanity. Grace is passionate about equipping each teacher she meets with the confidence to teach using Acquisition Driven Instruction.