Nazarenko’s New to the Third Floor

What causes someone to truly fall in love with a language? Ms. Julia Nazarenko, one of the new Spanish teachers, helps explain. In college, she was a freshman in a junior and senior level Spanish poetry class. In this class, Ms. Nazarenko fell in love with the Spanish language. She was “moved by the poetry of… the Peruvian poet… Cesar Vallejo.” This was when she knew she wanted to study Spanish for her college career.

Ms. Nazarenko teaches Spanish II and IV. In college, she majored in Spanish and Latin American studies. Nazarenko studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. One of her favorite memories from her time abroad was going to the Iguazú Falls, which is a national park with the largest waterfalls in the world.

She went to St. Francis High School in downtown Louisville. Ms. Nazarenko went to Bard College in New York for her freshman year, she then transferred to the University of Louisville for the rest of her studies. She taught in Madrid, Spain last year as well. She speaks three languages which include, English, Spanish, and Russian. She has been speaking Russian her whole life because she was born in Ukraine, and grew up speaking both Russian and English in her childhood home.

A passion for teaching and a high school friendship is what brought Ms. Nazarenko to SHA. “I really wanted to teach, and I found out from Señora Kupper who I went to high school with, that there was a position here open” she said. She loves SHA and the positive environment that surrounds her. Some of Nazarenko’s hobbies include reading-especially Victorian era literature-watching Netflix, walking, and spending time with friends. She currently does not have any pets, but hopes to eventually adopt a cat and a dog. We are excited for Ms. Nazarenko to join the Sacred Heart community.