Lives of Consequence
Diane Nickerson '95
As the founder and director of Castle Island Bilingual Montessori School in Albany, N.Y., Diane Nickerson ’95 has been able to integrate the interests she grew passionate about while a student at HWS into a career that helps children foster lifelong independent learning. Founded in 2012, Castle Island is one of the only dual language immersion schools in upstate New York, and has allowed Nickerson to combine her interests in human development, education and the Spanish language.
“I founded Castle Island because I believe children should have the best daily experiences as possible,” Nickerson says. “Our school has brought about a new community, and Montessori is the best method of schooling I’ve found that offers children individualized learning in a hands-on environment. It’s an amazing school model that prepares the whole child based on human development.”
Nickerson is currently the school director of Castle Island, overseeing the implementation of the Montessori curriculum within a dual immersion setting.
“I love working with the overall vision of the school and how it brings the community of families, staff and supporters together,” says Nickerson. “But I also love the day-to-day details that managing a school brings and watching the children grow in their language development and improve on everything from their math skills to their social skills.”
Together with the school’s Board of Trustees and community partners, Nickerson also works to establish funding to offer tuition assistance, making the school accessible for every family who wants their child to attend. She explains that Castle Island’s mission is to offer “world-class and accessible education to multi-culturally and economically diverse families.”
At Castle Island, each class is simultaneously facilitated by both an English-speaking teacher and a Spanish-speaking teacher, guiding the largely English dominant student body toward becoming fully bilingual. Nickerson explains that although most of the world is multi-lingual, it’s an “unusual” opportunity in the U.S. to receive multi-lingual education.
“The dual language approach alone makes us very unique,” says Nickerson. “But having a fully implemented Montessori school that’s both financially and geographically accessible for families, that’s what really makes us unique.”
In addition to the dual language approach, Castle Island provides individualized lessons and material for students to ensure that they gain a concrete understanding of the language and academic skills taught on a daily basis. The individualized approach allows students to study topics and skills that are interesting to them at their own pace, and to develop leadership skills in a natural way, says Nickerson. Castle Island also works to build a “multi-age community” by grouping students of different ages and academic abilities together in their classrooms.
Although Castle Island currently enrolls students aged three to six, the nonprofit, independent school recently relocated to a new space that will accommodate more students – growing towards Nickerson’s vision to serve students through middle school.
Nickerson credits her study abroad experience in the Dominican Republic, led by Professor of Education Charlie Temple, with instilling in her a “drive” for education, her Spanish skills, and her focus on human development.
She furthered these skills while spending two years in the Dominican Republic after graduation as a teacher for a progressive private American school, that much like Montessori takes an individualized approach to instruction. Upon returning to the U.S., she earned her master’s from SUNY Albany as well as an American Montessori Society school administrator credential from the Center for Montessori Education/NY while working as an ESL teacher for refugees and immigrants. She then became a language coach training teachers working with Spanish speaking students before opening Castle Island.