Lora Opsahl

A Minnesota Native with a Global Outlook

Lora Opsahl is passionate about the benefits of studying modern languages. Now in her eighteenth year at Breck, she has seen huge changes in the curriculum and the approach. "When I started in 1984, French was the only language available in Middle School," she remembers. "By 1990, we had added Spanish, German, Chinese and the entire Lower School language program."

Lora traces her interest in other languages and cultures to her childhood experiences in San Antonio, Texas. "My father, who was in insurance, was transferred there for a few years. He really saw the future need for all of us to be less isolated and more able to communicate with the rest of the world."

Upon the family's return to Minnesota, Lora studied Latin, French and Spanish in high school.

A junior year abroad experience living in Mexico kindled another lifelong interest in travel and learning about other cultures and people. "The combination of living and studying in another country is something remarkable," she says. "The cultural piece is extremely important."

By the time she started college, Lora knew she wanted to be a teacher - but her decision about what to teach didn't come until her junior year. "I started out studying humanities and philosophy," she recalls, "but realized that I really wanted to be a language teacher along the way."

While at the University of Minnesota, Lora chaired the international students organization and met several people who were to become long-term parts of her life: her future husband, David, and two future Breck colleagues.

Lora has taught Spanish at Breck during her entire career here and also serves as Modern Language department head. Before that, she was director of personnel. Prior to coming to Breck, Lora taught Spanish and French and was Middle School department head in the West St. Paul public schools.

A self-described "private person," Lora values time with her family, which includes her husband, a child psychiatrist in private practice, and sons Joshua and Noah and her much beloved two dogs and a cat.

Lora’s interests include yoga and meditation, reading, seeing films and, of course, travel. "I try to spend two to three weeks in a Spanish-speaking country each summer," she explains. "The experiential learning process continues even when you're an adult."