Director & Teacher 
Ana is a nature lover and a passionate teacher. She started her journey back in Costa Rica as a SpEd teacher. On the side she co-directed Nature Camps and provided outdoor experiences for her elementary students. 
She moved to Minnesota in 2014 where she found an incredible community of Nature learning who has encouraged her to follow her passion for nature and children. In 2018 Ana started a community of Spanish speaking families who gather every week called “Circulo de Amigos”. After COVID hit, this group evolved into “Amigos del Bosque Spanish Nature Preschool”. 
Ana lives in Eden Prairie with her husband and two children and divides her time in between directing the preschool that she dreamed for their own children, exploring nature with her family and gardening. 

MEET OUR TEACHERS

Ana Morice

Teacher Frances

Teacher & AdministratorBetsy is a lifelong learner, educator, and dreamer. Watching her children spend hours of uninterrupted time in nature taught her so much about how children learn naturally through hands-on experiences and time exploring in nature. She fell in love with outdoor education and never looked back. She has been involved in Amigos del Bosque in various capacities since 2021. 

She graduated from the University of St. Thomas with B.A.s in Elementary Education and Spanish. She began her career teaching Kindergarten and First grade in various Spanish immersion schools before having children. She lives in Eden Prairie with her husband, puppy, and four children. In her free time you can find her exploring the woods, gardening, or planning the next family adventure. 

Teacher Betsy

Laura York grew up on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and has always loved being outdoors and exploring her natural surroundings. A semester spent in Costa Rica as a freshman in high school and a gap year in Spain before college shaped her love of the Spanish language, and she double majored in Spanish and French at Kenyon College. She earned an MA in Hispanic literature at UNC-Chapel Hill, and spent several years teaching high school and college level Spanish. In 2011 she and her husband followed a job opportunity to Germany, where their son was born, and in 2017 they moved to Minnesota, where their daughter was born and they decided to stay put and let their roots grow. 
In her free time she can be found in her garden, curled up with a good book, or romping through the woods with her kids. 

Teacher Laura

Frances Durkin is an early childhood educator who has worked with children in many settings. Most recently she spent 20 years at the Lab School at the UofM as a Lead teacher and as the Creative Curriculum Coordinator. While she has taught music for the last 15 years, she does it from the viewpoint of someone who knows child development and wants to see the whole child thrive. Her classes are joyous, occasionally silly and follow the lead of the children. Perhaps as a result of her focus on creativity her favorite activities involve seeing what new ways the children invent to use different rhythm instruments. Frances became proficient in Spanish while living 3 years in Venezuela for her first job. 20 years later she brought her two sons and husband to live in Spain for a year. She feels like this gig; mixing Latino culture, music, young children and nature is about as good as it gets!