Spotlight: Mrs. Bravo

Here at Eisenhower, Mrs. Bravo spreads love and kindness to every student she can reach. Mrs. Bravo is the one and only child development teacher at Eisenhower. She also advises the Future Teachers Club. She has worked at Eisenhower for 5 years and has been teaching in the district for 26 years! Mrs. Bravo has a Bachelors and Masters degree that are both in Child Development from the University of La Verne. Prior to getting her bachelors she attended Chaffey College for 2 and a half years. Mrs. Bravo says that her college life was “all about locking in, getting good grades, and getting my degrees. I messed around a lot in high school, passed classes with the bare minimum and did what I had to do to graduate. So in college it was work, I wasn’t paying thousands of dollars to fail.”

In her high school years at Jurupa Valley, Mrs. Bravo was involved in track and field, along with journalism. She also volunteered at an animal shelter. She says that she was a horrible student in high school and only did enough work to pass. During these years, her favorite movie to watch was The Crow and she listened to grunge rock bands, specifically Pearl Jam and Nirvana. She also enjoyed watching Three’s company.

Mrs. Bravo didn’t expect teaching as her future career, she wanted to be a dancer on Broadway when she was a kid. When asked what inspired her to be a teacher she says, “Teaching chose me, I took a chance and walked into a Kindercare and they took a chance on me.” She then says, “teaching came naturally for me, I felt like it was the first time in my life that I knew what I was doing.” She chose to teach Child Development because it all comes naturally to her, she loves talking about Child Development and can go on for hours. She says that she gets excited when the things she says and does get put into action or work. Other than being a teacher, she thought about becoming a child psychologist. She says that the most rewarding part of being a teacher is when her students get excited about child development. She says that the worst part is when students take advantage of her kindness. Mrs. Bravo creates a safe and special environment for any student that walks into her classroom. She shows appreciation, understanding, and care for all of her students, even those who don’t take her class. Mrs. Bravo’s last message for us is, “Do what you love, money doesn’t bring happiness.”