Mariek was born in Toronto, Canada and spent her youth split between that bustling city and the beautiful province of Nova Scotia. 

She completed her Undergraduate Degree at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax with a Bachelor of Arts Anthropology, with Honours. After learning about cultures through academia for four years, Mariek made the decision to move abroad and experience different cultures firsthand. 

She lived in Jeju Island, South Korea, for five years where she taught English to Grades one through six and became infatuated with watching her students learn and grow as individuals. With her husband, Andrew Robinson, she moved to Prince Edward Island to enroll in a Bachelor of Education to further pursue her chosen career path. During that time, she had the incredible opportunity to do an internship at ISNS. She immediately fell in love with the school culture and with the city of Shenzhen and jumped at the chance to work with this wonderful school. She is now an MYP Language and Literature teacher at ISNS and couldn’t be more pleased.