Bertha Crandall

I was born and raised in Mexico City, I studied a Bachelor of Pedagogy at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

I worked for a couple of years in the Department of Psych pedagogy in an orphanage for girls as a primary school teacher. I married an American citizen, and I have lived in the United States for eleven years. We have two daughters, one is 9 years old and the little one is 5 years old, I stayed at home with my daughters until the oldest was 5 years old and the youngest was 3, and I began to investigate how to revalidate my studies here in the State of Washington to be a teacher, each state has its own requirements.

I didn’t have to revalidate subjects, but I found a two-year program that helped me get certified as a teacher. In this program I worked full time as an educator and in the afternoon/evening I had my classes four times a week. It was a lot of work and a bit complicated for my family to adapt to those two years that my program lasted, especially because I have no family here to support me to take care of my daughters, but with the support of my husband and a daycare school that we found for our youngest daughter, we survived two years. I loved the program I got certified in and found a lot of support and friendships that so far have been very important for my personal and professional development.

As soon as I graduated, I was hired as a bilingual teacher and have been teaching second grade Spanish for two years in a public school here in Washington state. I love my job and my career, I would not change anything at all, it was difficult the first few months to leave my daughters, but it was worth the effort. My girls are the reason and the inspiration to achieve all my goals, they saw everything I could achieve in the last 4 years and with that I want to show them that with work and effort they can become everything they want to be.

I am currently studying online for my Master of Science, Curriculum, and Instruction, and I hope to graduate next year. The advice that I would give to all migrant professional mothers is to give it a try, to be brave and to look for programs that help them revalidate, or get certified here in the United States, learn English and don’t stop studying and preparing, there are many scholarships and support to pay for your studies, besides that it will help open many doors for you and your families.