Villa is well known for our warm and nurturing staff, and we are widely respected in the early childhood field. Our teachers have many years of teaching experience with young children. We are very fortunate to have teachers who speak various languages and come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. The Villa staff work together as a cohesive team. They are responsible for maintaining the classroom environment, planning the curriculum, teaching and assessing children.
Staff Profiles
Qiu Yuan (Sandy) Lin is the Director at Villa Montessori School. She holds an Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) Diploma and Certificate in Child Development, she has taken many other early childhood education courses in the past years. She also holds a BA degree in Foreign Trade English from China. She has been a Head Teacher at Villa Montessori School in the past and also taught at Villa for over 14 years.
Justine Fan is AMS certified Montessori Teacher. She received BA in Early Childhood Education from Taiwan. She came to the United States in 1996 to earn a Master's degree in Early Childhood Education. Mrs. Fan has been working in Montessori classrooms since 1998. She has taught at Children's Cottage in Alamo for two years and Apple Seed International School in Sunnyvale for thirteen years. She is very excited to be part of the teaching team at Villa!
Shiroma De Silva is a certified Montessori teacher. Before immigrating to the US in 2000 to work at a Montessori school, she worked as a public school teacher in Sri Lanka. She is a certified Site Supervisor by the California Commission of Teaching Credentials and has also completed education in child development and CPR certification. Ms. De Silva has around 21 years of experience in the Montessori teaching environment and has previously worked at Appleseed Montessori for about 10 years.
She really enjoys working with young children and hopes to be able to work together as a team with the parents to help their children grow academically, socially, emotionally, and in every way possible.
She really enjoys working with young children and hopes to be able to work together as a team with the parents to help their children grow academically, socially, emotionally, and in every way possible.
Rani Dhruva is an IMA certified Montessori Teacher with ECE certification earned at De Anza College. She has been working with Montessori schools since 2013. Mrs. Dhruva holds a master's degree in Commerce, earning a gold medal for Specialization in Accounting and Business Taxation. Her passion for working with young children motivated her to pursue the education field. She worked as a Montessori Teacher at the Head Start Montessori House of Children in Bangalore and as the Head Montessori Teacher at Mantra Montessori School before joining Villa. She is dedicated to helping each child reach their fullest potential.
Aarabi Raj received her certification as an early childhood Montessori teacher (AMS) from the Montessori Teacher Education Center (MTEC) San Francisco Bay Area in 2009. She respects the inner needs of the child and guides them to put things in order, concentrate, and work on coordination and independence. She admires children and enjoys listening to them. She has worked at various schools in the Bay Area. She has been with Villa since 2018. She has a bachelor's degree in English Literature and a master’s in yoga from India. She teaches yoga to adults and children in the community.
Karen Sahota holds a bachelors in business concentration in human resources from San Jose State University. She helps run the front and back office administration, as well as helping the teachers whenever they need. Karen is passionate about creating a better link between employees and management. She wants to do this by designing a positive environment and configuring the best possible results for the front and back of Villa Montessori. Karen has a fondness for travelling (18 countries and 13 states), animals, and letting children learn hands-on.