Employee Directory

Ella Hepner

• World Langauges Faculty
• Email
• Dyker Heights
• Upper School

“Engaging in another language is like stepping through the doors to another world that you saw at your periphery, but never acknowledged or understood. It informs about your own place in the world by exposing your differences, and more importantly your similarities, with this other reality.”

Ella Hepner joined Poly Prep as an Upper School Spanish teacher in 2023. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University’s interdisciplinary degree program with a bachelor’s degree in Hispanic Studies, Global Studies and Fine Arts. Her interest in blending disciplines continues as she maintains a studio art practice, teaches Spanish, and works as an interpreter for asylum seekers. Ella thrives in guiding students through the maze of language acquisition: embracing humility, finding patterns, and recognizing self in other contexts. She has a special interest in Cuban contemporary art, which she studied at the University of Havana in Cuba. Ella transmits her passion for language during her classes as a tool for mutual understanding and self-exploration.