Trimarchi teaching a group of her Spanish 1 students with her incredible speaking and teaching skills. photo by Kaylee Held
A great new Spanish teacher, Mrs. Trimarchi, was welcomed into the TJ Community this year.
Teaching at a new school is never easy, but for Jamie Trimarchi, becoming a TJ Spartan is just another adventure in a life filled with international activism and community reconstruction. The George Washington graduate, who has lived in six different states, has lead an impressive life including working with issues such as women’s rights, child labor, and the state of democracy. Now, Trimarchi is bringing her innovative skills to students at Thomas Jefferson High School.
Trimarchi was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC in Northern Virginia. She attended American University in DC where she received her bachelor’s degree and later attended George Washington University in DC to earn her master’s degree. Her undergraduate degree was in Spanish and her graduate degree was in Secondary Education so she could focus on second language acquisition. Trimarchi received a graduate certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
Before becoming a teacher, she worked in Finance and Human Resources for a non-profit organization in DC that implemented developmental projects all over Latin America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Their projects focused on all sorts of important issues including democracy, women’s rights, ending child labor, youth employment, agriculture, and cultural exchanges.
Trimarchi started studying Spanish in college, but at that time she was mostly learning it at home and at work with her Spanish-speaking friends and coworkers. When she decided to major in Spanish in college, she had to take all of her upper-level classes in Spanish which allowed her to learn more academic language. Trimarchi then studied abroad in Spain, which is where she felt like she finally achieved fluency. After that, she practiced Spanish at the non-profit, where she was able to travel to Colombia and the Dominican Republic for work. She has also traveled to Mexico and Panama for fun, and returned to Spain multiple times. When getting the opportunity to travel to a Spanish speaking country, it makes learning the language a lot easier because it is all that is heard as one is fully immersed in the culture.
After Trimarchi ended up majoring in Spanish, she also received a graduate certificate in TESOL, however, she didn’t go into teaching right away. A few years later, she decided she wanted to teach high school. “High school was a difficult time in my own life, so I felt a calling to give back to students also struggling through a tough time and be like the teachers who really inspired me,” Trimarchi stated. When she first started teaching, she was an English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher. After a few years of that, she found a job teaching Spanish. She moved to Colorado in January, and for the past three years, her family has moved states six times. During that time, she was a long-term sub at East High School and prior to that she taught Spanish for one year at a middle school in Charlottesville, Virginia. Before moving around, she also taught ESOL in a few high schools throughout Northern Virginia.
“My favorite part of being a high school teacher is getting to know my students and watching them grow and learn. I learn a lot from them as well and they keep me young. I’m super excited to be at TJ. I couldn’t have asked to land in a better school. Everyone is so awesome and welcoming. It’s very similar to the high school I went to myself, so I feel very comfortable here,” explained Trimarchi. The TJ community welcomes Trimarchi, and excited to see what her future has in store.
