Lily (she/her) started her career in Montessori Education in 2017 and earned her MACTE accredited Primary diploma. She worked in a Primary classroom for 2 years but found an almost gravitational pull towards toddlers and the extraordinary levels of independence she saw from these very young children in Montessori environments. She was then inspired her to attend the Montessori Institute in Denver where she obtained her AMI (0-3) Assistants to Infancy diploma. She gained pivotal insight into the 0-3 journey and learned how to not only prepare a Montessori environment for the young child at school, but also in the home. Lily loves working alongside families and supporting new parents as they navigate the first few years of a child’s life.
With her passion and dedication to Montessori as a pedagogy and tool for self-liberation, Lily will be graduating with her M. Ed in Montessori Education from Loyola University Maryland in the Spring of 2023. She is enthusiastic about the growing field of Montessori educational research and is excited to be conducting her own research as she completes her Masters. Lily uses her keen observational skills each day to inform her teaching practices and interactions with children in her care. Lily feels joy guiding young children towards functional independence and offering abundant opportunities for them to first care for themselves, so that they can then extend this care to their environment and others. She sees this as the natural progression towards truly feeling a sense of belonging to one’s community.
Lily was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and has a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies from York University with a focus on Chinese Language and Culture. Her studies of Asia have taken her to Cambodia, where she volunteered for an NGO offering free English classes to children in rural villages. She also has taught English as a Second Language to children in China.
In her free time, Lily loves cooking, hiking with her husband Ben, a native Vermonter, traveling to new places, and playing ukulele. Lily is thrilled to be joining the Hilltop community this Fall and hopes to bring her passions for music, exploring the outdoors, and food preparation to the Toddler Program.