Directing Team
Chantal Shoaf - Director
shoaf@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Caley Moore - Director
moore@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Jeanne Brandes - Treasurer
treasurer@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Our Faculty
Anna-Anita Cesnjevar (Adults - German I)
cesnjevar@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Anna hails from Franconia, a region of northern Bavaria in Germany. She studied French & Italian at universities in Bamberg, Germany and Geneva, Switzerland and has taught German, French and Italian at various levels, including High School in Los Alamos, NM, and college at the University of New Mexico. Today she is a lecturer at Ohio State University in Italian, and loves having the opportunity to teach her native language, and to talk to about her homeland and its culture.
Jessica Riviere (Adults - German II)
riviere@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Jessica Riviere was born and raised in Atlanta, GA, where she started taking German in the fourth grade. Ever the pragmatist, she double majored in German as an undergraduate at The College of Wooster, after which she taught English for a year in a small town in Brandenburg. That experience encouraged her to enroll in graduate school at Vanderbilt University, where she taught German for five years. She is now an instructional consultant at The Ohio State University, and is raising her toddler to speak German like Oma and Opa in Leipzig.
Peter Coccia (Adults - German III)
coccia@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Peter Coccia is a native of Columbus and received his bachelor of arts in modern languages from the University of Notre Dame. Peter has lived and traveled in Germany and taught high school German. After retiring from a long career in State Government, Peter continued his study of German language and culture at The Ohio State University in order to renew his secondary teaching license. He has been a substitute German teacher for a number of Central Ohio school districts the past four years and currently is a director on the board of Dresden Sister City, Inc., a local non-profit organization supporting the sister city relationship between Columbus and Dresden, Germany.
Dorit Fratzscher (Adults - German IV)
fratzscher@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Dorit hails from Saxony. She studied English and Russian at the University of Leipzig, Germany, where she also earned her teacher certificate. For a few years, she taught English at a business school in Leipzig, before she and her family moved to Columbus, Ohio in 2003. Dorit is the executive director of Dresden Sister City, Inc. and coordinates numerous exchanges between Columbus and Dresden, Germany. She also holds a part-time position as bilingual administrative assistant at a local law firm, where she translates legal documents and correspondence to and from German. Dorit is married and has two daughters, who go to school in Dublin and speak fluent German.
Johanna (Miniklub - Ages 3 and under, Libellen - Preschool Ages 3-4)
Caley Moore (Schmetterlinge -Kindergarten - Ages 4-6)
moore@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Caley is a certified High School German Teacher. She earned a Bachelor of Education Degree at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio and received her Masters degree in German Studies in Middlebury, Vermont. She has taught German levels 1-4, ran International club, organized high school exchange trips with Saarbrücken and Köln, and tutored for 5 years in Cincinnati. She and her son live in the Columbus area. Currently she is teaching German at DSHS in Dublin . She is Co-Director of OGLS, Director of Tutoring and also teaches the Schmetterlinge - Kindergarten German class at OGLS.
Chantal Shoaf (Marienkäfer - Native Kindergarten - Ages 4-6)
shoaf@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Chantal is originally from Bavaria, Germany. She earned her Bachelor of Education Degree in Elementary Education in the Netherlands and moved to Ohio in 2010. After getting certified in Ohio for Elementary Schools she taught as a classroom teacher and a reading intervention teacher in the Delaware City School District as well as tutored German for 2 years. She is currently teaching ESL to children at an online school. She is the Director Of OGLS and also teaches the Marienkäfer - Kindergarten Native Speakers. Chantal lives in Plain City with her husband and children, who are being raised bilingual, on a horse farm. In addition to German she also speaks English, Dutch and basic French.
Leah Steiner-Suter (Igel - Ages 6-8)
Leah Steiner Suter is a native of Columbus with Swiss-German heritage. After the influence of an amazing high school German teacher here, she had the privilege of learning German and its related cultures while in college, studying in Berlin, and teaching English in Vienna. Leah also taught children ages 3-18 at the Concordia Language Villages’ German Village in Bemidji, Minnesota, at a private German school in Portland, Oregon, and a public German immersion school in St. Paul/Minneapolis. When not at OGLS, Leah enjoys cooking and baking, yoga and meditation, gardening, hiking, camping, and organizing for social justice.
Nicky Sullivan (Frösche - Elementary - Ages 9-11)
sullivan@ohiogermanlanguageschool.org
Nicky was born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany. She completed an internship at a local daycare while getting her Associate’s degree in Administrative Management. She moved to the United States in the late 80s and soon continued her education at a seminary and Ohio University. Nicky has always volunteered her time to work with children, be it privately as a babysitter or in church as a Sunday school teacher or at local elementary schools as a reading and/or math tutor. She started volunteering with OGLS in 2011 to assist with the children. When the Kindergarten teacher retired Nicky took over the class as the instructor in 2013. In 2014 she started teaching the children's advanced class: Frösche. In her free time Nicky enjoys spending time with family, friends and the outdoors.
Ramona Wechsler (Adler - Middle/High - Ages 12-17)
wechsler@ohiogermanlanguageschool@gmail.com
Ramona was born and raised in Franconia, Germany. She has a degree in Hotel Industry Expertise and the Culinary Arts and worked in the hotel industry for some years. She has been teaching German to native English speakers since High School. In 2013 Ramona came to Ohio to be an Au Pair for a family for 2 years. She taught her host siblibgs German during that time while also attending a local university to study Spanish. Ramona now lives in Grove City with her husband and german shepherd and is also a private tutor for OGLS.
