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Mr. De Mora

I was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1990 to a Venezuelan father and an American mother. I grew up in Center Point, went through a couple of schools, and ended up graduating from Hewitt Trussville before going on to UAB in 2008. When I was around 7 or 8, I was introduced to my father's side of the family in Valencia and Caracas, Venezuela. After that first visit I was hooked and started going every summer for 6ish weeks. It took several trips, but I eventually became fluent in Spanish and got the opportunity to experience life all over Venezuela, from frying on the beaches of Maracaibo and the deserts of Coro to climbing up the side of Angel Falls and catching piranas in the Amazon. Those experiences gave me a love of travel and foreign languages. Unfortunately, Venezuela quickly collapsed under Chavez, so I haven't been able to visit most of my family since 2012. But since then, I've been all over North America, Europe, and Latin America, taking advantage of summer vacation to keep checking things off of my bucket list.

As for languages, while I was still a student at UAB I dabbled in Arabic, Italian, Portuguese, French, and German before settling on Russian. After college, I immediately landed a teaching position at Leeds and have been here ever since! I currently teach all levels of Spanish, from 1 to AP, and am essentially the entire department. I love the autonomy my position gives me and that it allows me to spend several years getting to know the students who stuck it out to AP, though it can make graduation bittersweet.

Aside from Spanish, I also run the Chess Club, which meets every Friday from 3:15 to 5. Normally, we go to several tournaments throughout the year, but all skill levels are welcome to join us!