Born in São Paulo and raised in Brasília to Korean parents, Carolina's experiences are as diverse as her upbringing. Trained in classical guitar with Doug Burris, Bruce Holzman, and João Paulo Figueiroa, she is a guitarist but an educator first.
It was in her second year in the United States, a freshmen in high school, that she met her very first guitar teacher. She didn’t know then but his teaching and influence would lead her to cultivate a love for meaningful and intentional teaching and learning experiences.Through Mr. Burris, she learned that pedagogy is not just the method of teaching but the art of teaching.
With that inspiration, she chose to attend the College of Music at Florida State University to develop her classical guitar technique and to pursue her music education degree. Upon graduating, she left to South Korea to teach music and movement to young students of English for two incredible years.
Educational technology and learning design, another byproduct of Burris’ influence, formalized during her time at Teachers College, Columbia University. She served as their Tech Fellow for two years as she focused her studies on student-centered pedagogy. She received her M.A. in Music and Music Education in 2013.
Carolina is now the Lead Educational Technologist at the Manhattan location of SUNY Empire State College where she also teaches undergraduate music and educational technology courses.