Gary Krautkramer

school director

Bio

Liz Paz

Teacher

Elizabeth or Liz. Born in Los Angeles, CA and spent most of her childhood there, but moved to the Dallas, TX area when she was 12 years old. She received her Bachelor's degree in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico in 2014, where she specialized in Spanish and TESOL education. After teaching English in Brazil for a year in 2015 and teaching high school Spanish for three years in the Dallas area, she decided to pursue a career in mental health counseling. She received her Master's in Counseling Psychology from Texas Woman's University and although she has pursued a career as a therapist, she still have a passion for education, which brought her to Aston International Academy. Outside of work, She likes to explore Austin's food culture, go hiking, roller skate, and play board games.

​John Theo

TEACHER

Teaching is his Ikigai: the intersection of what he love, what he's good at, what he can be paid for, and what the world needs. His reason for being is to connect with, uplift, and give as many people as possible, all around the world, the tools they need to make their lives amazing. 
He earned a Bachelor's Degree in Teaching English as a Second Language as well as a license to teach from the State of New York in 2018. Since then, he have taught English in the United States, Thailand, and Greece, and he have been a student of a second language in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Peru, earning a high, intermediate proficiency in Spanish. 

Language is what makes us human. It is a unique and fascinating quality of the human condition, so when he's studying and teaching language acquisition, he feels like he's exercising his humanity in a way that's thrilling and soul warming. His goal as a language teacher is to teach as many people as he can, in the most efficient and effective ways possible, all around the world.

Polina Pivovarova

Academic coordinator

Polina started her teaching career in 2013 when she was still a university student studying foreign language methodology. As a teacher, she mainly focused on the best ways to create a fun and engaging atmosphere to facilitate student learning in the best way possible. As a Curriculum Coordinator at Aston International Academy, she ensures that our students receive​the highest quality education through the most up-to-date language education methodology and materials. She is also responsible for helping our teachers improve their teaching and inspiring them to stay just as passionate as she has been throughout her career. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, reading and studying foreign languages. She also loves cycling and trying different foods from all over the world.

Violeta Gudkova

Teacher

Teaching English has been one of the biggest parts her life ever since she majored in Fundamental and Applied Linguistics in 2016. Throughout her career she has taught young learners, teenagers, university students, and adults. She've worked both with individual students and groups. She has experience teaching English in both university and corporate environments. What Violeta likes most about her job is helping people achieve their goals in an enjoyable way. She is permanently learning something new and developing professionally, so she just love seeing her students grow. In her time she enjoy reading, watching films and doing sports.

Valeria Vasquez

admissions and outreach specialist

Valeria is from Santiago, Chile and moved to Austin to improve her English here in Aston International Academy. She defines herself as an integral professional that loves to learn different skills and topics. She has a passion to travel, discover new places and always meet new people from around the world. One of her biggest dreams is to live in different countries. In her free time she likes to discover Austin's bars and go to music shows.

Lauren Tarnow

teacher

Lauren is from San Antonio, Texas, and has been teaching ESL on-and-off since 2011. Growing up in San Antonio, she was fascinated by Spanish and by being around other languages. She studied English and Spanish at Abilene Christian University. First teaching ESL in Abilene, she soon moved to Japan where she lived and taught for 4 years. After living in Japan, she traveled all over the world, and returned to the United States in 2019. She is passionate about language and education, food, and birth, and is training to become a doula. Nature, fresh or salty water, time in the kitchen, or time at home with her cat are places where she refreshes and finds peace. ​​

Skye Gilbert

Teacher

Howdy!
He is a native of south Texas ranch country. He grew up riding horses, hunting and raising cattle with his father and brother. After university, he went to explore the world and was fortunate to live in a few other countries. Now that he lives back in Texas, he’ve come to enjoy the country life again. However, he loves the pleasures of city life, especially Asian foods, to be too far away from our great city, Austin.