Marinela is from Braila, Romania and graduated from “AL. I. Cuza” University, Iasi, Romania, with a Bachelor of Philology, majors: Romanian Language and Literature - French Language and Literature. She taught Romanian and French at primary and secondary schools in Romania for nine years. She further developed a passion for teaching as she focused on the Grade 8 National Evaluation and fostered French learning through indulging hard work, dedication for what the students are doing and fulfilment for achieving a goal. She got Teacher’s Tenure Certificate in 2000 and Teacher Certification Level II in 2005.

As she was planning to move to China, she decided to learn Mandarin; consequently, she studied at Bucharest University, where she obtained her second Bachelor of Philology, majors: Chinese Language and Literature and English Language and Literature. After graduation, she moved to Shenzhen where she attended the TESOL Core Certificate Program: TESOL Fundamental Core and TESOL: Teaching and Assessing Young Learners. After completing her final paper, she received the opportunity to work with students with learning needs at ISNS, therefore focusing mainly on implementing individualized accommodations and modifications in the mainstream classroom. 

Marinela believes that inclusive strategies and the IB philosophy work together to help focus on students’ interests, creating a safe environment, setting high expectations, building strong motivation, breaking projects into smaller tasks, inducing good work habits, and last but not least, celebrating achieved milestones.