Created by the VLUS Student Government
We have chosen to do this project by highlighting members of our VLUS community as a way to celebrate them. We aim to accomplish this goal by learning about what connects us all, while showing our community that we should not judge a
book by its cover, because there is more to each of us than what our appearance presents. We hope that by getting to know the people in our school, we can achieve a deeper understanding of our VLUS community, and a stronger sense of
connection.
Celebrating each other is another way we all become better versions of ourselves.
Meet Ms. Oksana
Ms.
Oksana is our amazing Spanish teacher! She is also a mother, a world traveler, and a lover of adventure and animals. She was born in Cuba. She’s a founder of VLUS and has worked at CPSD for 18 years. Ms. Oksana speaks Spanish
and English. She also has knowledge of Russian (1st language), Italian, and a bit of French and ASL. Two reasons Ms. Oksana loves her job at VLUS are that she enjoys working with middle schoolers, and the opportunity that working at
VLUS gives her to make a difference in people's lives.
She told us that in her free time she likes spending time with her two children and friends, reading, listening to NPR and music, dancing, and meeting new people. She’s currently reading How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr.
Ms. Oksana studied Environmental Science, Anthropology, and a Master in Education. She gets 6 hrs of sleep and one of her goals is to get a full 8 hrs.
She’s most proud of her son Victor and her daughter Zaida for being the amazing individuals they are; loving, intelligent, empathic, and generous.
A life experience that really affected her was when a very close person to her got killed while she was living in Chile. This experience taught her the importance of being present in the moment, of not taking our life and time with others
for granted, and of appreciating everything we have.
Ms. Oksana would like to shout out Ms. Schauer for being such a great co-advisor, her awesome students in Advisory and Student Government, Ms. Obi, and Mr. C-N for being very supportive (like so many others at VLUS) in all of the ideas
and projects she comes out with, Ms. Laurie, Ms. Imani, Ms. Burbank, and Mr. Sadowski for their kindness every time she needs their help, and Ms. DerriniQue for accepting to be her Student Government co-advisor.
Thank you Ms. Oksana for your dedication to our VLUS community!