When Ms.Veruschka Bratt was in high school, she had a teacher who became a key factor in her becoming a teacher herself. She explained the moment by saying, “my geography teacher was really passionate about making sure he pushed his students.” She said it worked because the whole class learned and everybody loved being in that class. His name was Mr. Madrawno and he had a zest for life and making sure his students were something in life.
Ms. Veruschka also decided to work in the education field because she wants to help the future generation get on good paths for life and school. She also stated that she has confidence in the next leading generation by saying “the future generation of our world is looking bright and good” while also getting to know the perspective of the younger generation. Overall, she just loves helping people because that’s the type of person she is.
She likes working with kids because her mother cherished her with a lot of love, coming from only one and now she wants to give that support and care to students who don’t feel that or have it as they go through school.
When she was younger, her mom – who was a young Peruvian mother of 5 – was an activist for the Native Americans while they were on Alcatraz. Ms. Veruschka was the youngest of 3 boys and 2 girls who used to play hide and seek in the jail cells. There were other kids they played with too, and this dates back to around the 70’s.
Just like her mom, she too is a single mother with two kids who she loves a lot dearly. Ms. Veruschka feels families are important to talk to when things get bad because that sort of hardship will better the relationship.
Ms. Veruschka also is a cancer patient survivor, and feels health is really important, “so if you don’t care or stay on top of your health, then you may not think life is precious.”
She wanted to be a therapist if she didn’t become a teacher. Her reasoning for this was because she loved listening to people and being the person who gave feedback off of what she was being told. She also wanted to help them by elaborating on their problems so life could be easier for them .
She did have some college experience. She didn’t attend a big university, but she did attend the College of San Mateo, which is a community college.
Ms. Veruschka explained her college experience to me and it was something like this: Going to community college in San Mateo was a different scenery for her. Because she’s from San Francisco, going to another city with a different environment must’ve been a new fresh air feeling for her. It was somewhere new for her to be.
She still has contact with an old friend from elementary school. Even to this day, she often talks to them because they are best friends. For 40+ years they’ve been friends, and the years are still counting!!
