Staff: Mary Isabel Sales

Mary is a proud daughter of Filipino immigrants. Originally hailing from the Chicago suburbs, she graduated from Augustana College in Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Psychology and minors in Sociology and Theatre Arts in 2022. She discovered a love of service and education through her work and volunteer experiences: tutoring her college peers at the Augustana Reading/Writing Center, volunteering as a camp counselor and teen leadership program coordinator for Camp Kesem and working as a group foster care youth counselor at Family Resources.

For the 2022-23 school year, she came to Austin for an AmeriCorps service year with Literacy First to provide one-on-one reading interventions as a Spanish bilingual tutor. She tutored in one of Friends Austin’s partner schools and loved the bilingual population she was able to serve. She returned to the same school for the 2023-24 school year as a Literacy First campus leader, honing in her skills and knowledge of early literacy development, leadership, as well as her Spanish abilities.

In her free time, Mary loves seeing live music and theatre, playing tennis and pickleball, doing yoga, and spending time with her black cat, Astro. She is ecstatic to be part of the Friends Austin family and continue serving the local community!