Faculty Profile: Anthony Sabedra
There are many faculty and staff members on the Burke's campus who speak Spanish, but there is only one Señor. Anthony Sabedra, a.k.a. Señor Sabedra to his students, has worn many hats since his arrival at Burke's in January 2007.
He has taught fifth-, sixth-, and eighth-grade Spanish, as well as a trimester of sixth-grade Humanities, and he is a co-advisor to Youth Voice, Burke's student government program. Anthony has also taught after-school Latin and French enrichment classes to the fourth grade as part of an overall introduction to the Upper School world languages program.
This past summer, Anthony collaborated even further with the Lower School by working with that division's music teacher, Lisa Mandelstein, on a project focusing on the richness of Mexican music. One of the results of that collaboration involved bringing in the talents of his eighth-grade students, who wrote and offered new lyrics to the classic song "La Bamba," which is sung each year at the Burke's Opening Assembly and formally opens the school year. Their new lyrics used the framework of friendship/sisterhood and were shared with the entire school community for the first time at this year's Opening Assembly. Another project Anthony collaborated on this year was with Upper School art teacher Danielle Denton and Makery Facilitator Susan Deemer, which had them walking students through the creation of stop-motion animated movies that profiled famous Latina women. That collaboration just took them to the NAIS People of Color Conference 2017 in November where they delivered a presentation/workshop titled "Famous and Influential Hispanic/Women of History: A Mixed Media Approach."
To fully appreciate all that Anthony brings to Burke’s and his students is to know his lifelong learning beyond the classroom. Anthony was raised in a household with many languages: Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Cantonese. He had two babysitters, one from Brazil and the other from China. As a child, his family traveled extensively. They visited Central and South America, Asia, and North Africa, with regular trips to Europe. Later in life, Anthony attended schools in France, Italy, and Spain and is a graduate of Cornell University. Anthony speaks Italian, Spanish, French, Greek, Russian, and some German.
Anthony has also been a lifelong lover of all types of music. He has also studied many musical instruments as well as voice. All this musical preparation has paid off well — just this fall, Anthony was cast as one of the high executioner’s henchmen in this year’s San Francisco Opera production of Puccini’s Turandot. As a result, he was offered a role in the world premiere of Adam’s Girls of the Golden West as an affluent Mexican landowner, but he had to decline the role due to his teaching schedule and other obligations.
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