Laurel is originally from a small town south of Buffalo, New York. She received a bachelor's degree in International Relations with a focus on Latin American and US relations and a minor in Spanish from Texas State University. Later, she finished a master's degree in Bilingual Elementary Education and started working as a dual language teacher in a public school in Texas. After moving to California in 2023, she switched to teaching middle school Spanish. Laurel also spent five years living abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is very interested in and values learning about languages and cultures. On the weekends she is either hiking with her dogs or knitting a new creation.