Andrew Mountford
Andrew has served as the Burbank Before and After School Program Director since 2004. He began working at the program in 2001 and has taught sports and chess enrichment classes over the years. He has served as a classroom aide for Kathy Lind, Cliff Gallant and Selina Anderson.
During his tenure as Director, Andrew has developed and implemented a variety of popular curricula. One area of curricular exploration that he feels is particularly important is global awareness. To further this aim, he established an affiliation with the Harvard World View Program in 2004. This affiliation provided college-aged speakers with experience working in various international settings for the Burbank students over the course of the 04-05 school year. In 2005, BBASP ran its first Olympics program, which emphasized good sportsmanship in the context of the international Olympic spirit. He is currently implementing a photography and music exchange in his work in the Many Voices, One Song project, connecting kids from Belmont with their peers in Namugongo, Uganda.
Andrew has also focused on enhancing the experience of BBASP students through Music. In addition to our new listening center, we have been offering free music lessons to any interested students through Artisan Music Studios. All Kindergarten students participate in a “Kindermusik” program that promotes music appreciation through sing-a-longs, rhythms and playing simple instruments. Additionally, students in grades 1-4 can participate in voice, drums or guitar lessons. In October, 2006, Andrew secured a grant from the ExxonMobil Educational Alliance to help fund the second session of tuition-free music lessons.
Curriculum design and implementation is a passion for Andrew. In the spring of 2008, he began working as a consultant for the Harvard Achievement Support Initiative (HASI). The goal of his work was creating fun and relevant math curriculum to be implemented during after school time in support of classroom concepts.
A politics major at Brandeis University, Andrew will complete his Master’s degree in Elementary Education from Lesley University in 2008. He and his wife, Elizabeth Bosworth, live in Medford Square.
Nina Vansuch
A Boston native, Nina Vansuch began working at the Burbank After School Program (BASP) in 1989 teaching art and music workshops then moving on to be part of the regular staff. In 1991 Nina became the Director of BASP. 1997 was an especially busy year: Nina added before school care to the BASP roster (making it “BBASP”) and founded CHENEX, the after school youth organization at the Chenery Middle School. In 1998, she re-organized the after school enrichment classes (BASEC).
During her tenure at BBASP, Nina developed curriculum and formats for BBASP and other after school programs and arts programs. Among her many contributions, to BBASP were community education workshops; multicultural art exhibitions and performances; town-wide support and education meetings and forums some of which included groups for single parents and families of color (ASAP- All Safe All Places); elder homework helpers and teen tutors; town-wide staff development workshops; BASP’s family and staff handbooks and forms; Walking Tall- a community service team; peer counseling group; Odyssey of the Mind: challenging team project/collaborations; Tile Talk, talent shows, yearly pot-luck dinners and performances for families (Jeff Danger, Irene Small, Fatouye N’Daye, Davey the Clown, Alex the Jester, et al) and Meet-the-Board gatherings. Many of these programs originated from grants awarded to the program. In 1997, Nina was awarded with a grant from the American Business Collaborative for excellence in childcare program development. BBASP became a model for other programs in New England. (for more info see www.ninavansuch.com)
Nina's involvement in the Belmont community included her activities as a mother; grant writing (awards from Grants for Peace, The Belmont Cultural Council, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Foundation for Belmont Education, et al); substitute teaching for the Belmont School system; participation on the first Burbank School Advisory Committee; teaching at the Kendall Center for the Arts, being on the center's Board of Directors, and performing in many shows at the Kendall some of which included the Belmont High School Jazz Band, Jazz Chorus, and Dance Company. She was an artist-in-residence in the Belmont Schools for three years in visual and performing arts.
In 2004, Nina and her husband, David Ratcliffe, moved to Santa Cruz, California where she was the Arts Education Coordinator for the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. In 2006, they returned east to Maine where Nina served as the Sanford Public School's 21st Century Community Learning
Centers Program Coordinator. In 2007, they returned to Nina's hometown of Boston where Nina continues her life's work in the arts and in the development of excellent after school programs.
Directors
