Founder Krystell Guzman
Krystell holds an undergraduate degree from the University of California Santa Cruz and a masters in Public Administration from California State East Bay. She is a training expert by trade. Her training endeavors have taken her to far away lands such as Ethiopia, Dominican Republic and all over Central America. She worked as coffee and training expert for the United States Agency for International Development on improving the quality of coffee for small and medium coffee producers throughout Central America. Her program went on to create 5 National coffee schools that had a huge impact on exports in each of the countries she worked in. Krystell has also worked as a Regional Development Consultant for Mercer Human Resource Consulting where she was in charge of providing learning and development resources for all of the offices in the Western United States and Latin America. Prior to that she was a training manager at Google in charge of creating the training program for the famous book scanning project entitled Book Search.
Krystell is mother to Ziel a teenager, Zaylee a star Softball player and Zyana who still attends La Plazita. Krystell's children were the inspiration for starting this school as her goal was to preserve the language of her heritage while at the same time ensuring her children would be fully ready for kindergarten and the rest of their educational lives.
Curriculum Director Christina Guzman
Christina graduated from California State Hayward with a teaching credential in Early Childhood Education. In her early years as a bilingual school teacher in the Fremont Unified School district, she created a bilingual preschool. Christina currently works as a curriculum development specialist and an English Language Program Coordinator for a International Baccalaureate School in San Jose. Christina has trained hundreds of teachers throughout her career for universities such as University of California Santa Cruz and has been a featured speaker at many California Association of Bilingual Educators conferences.
Christina is the proud mother of three adult children and the even prouder grandmother of two beautiful grandchildren. She is fully bilingual and hopes all of her family continues to speak Spanish fluently and uphold their pride in their Latino heritage.
Director of Operations
Etelvina Guadalupe (Lupe) Lopez
I am a certified primary school teacher from Guatemala and a proud speaker of Spanish, Q'eqchi', and English. Having grown up in a multicultural environment and raised my own children in a bilingual household, I deeply value the linguistic diversity that enriches our global society. I believe that speaking more than one language provides children with a unique and vital perspective on the world.
My teaching philosophy is centered on providing a nurturing environment where love, tenderness, and clear boundaries form the foundation for children to grow into healthy, self-confident adults. I find great joy in supporting children’s development through music, dance, and play—what I like to call 'teaching in a playful way!'
I have been a part of La Plazita since its founding in 2011, and in 2016, I became a part-owner of La Plazita Preschool. It has been a joy to watch La Plazita grow into more than just a preschool where children develop essential life skills. It is now a place where aspiring educators come to start their own professional journeys.
Director of Administration
Cecilia Rodriguez
Cecilia was born and raised in Abasolo, Guanajuato, Mexico. She loves her culture and enjoys transmitting her culture to the kids. She is married and is the proud mother of 4 kids, blessing her with tons of experience with children. She has also worked as a nanny for many other children. Ceci loves to dance and can often times be seen dancing with all the children at La Plazita. In her free time she loves to go for walks and exercise with her kids. She enjoys nature and has a lot of fun exploring the world with the little ones in "La Plazita". She also has a degree in business administration which provides her another perspective in working with the children. Her organizational skills help in developing great routines with the children, which they love. . Ceci is also returning to school to study early childhood development.