About Ms. Hauser

You never know what life is going to put before you, just be flexible. I tell you because I've been there. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, I came to the United States when I turned eighteen on a full academic scholarship to attend Williams College. I doubled majored in Math and Psychology, and graduated cum laude in 1996. I traveled around the United States before settling in San Francisco, CA.

I worked at a coffee shop when I first landed in California. I learned that I was not a morning person, and that making good coffee is way harder than anyone would ever understand. From there, I moved on to being a paralegal at a tiny immigration firm. I worked on tons of family and business immigration cases, but I loved writing briefs and working on political asylum cases. At McVey and Mullery I found that helping people tell their story helps them heal, and filled me with a sense of personal purpose and satisfaction. Yet, living in Silicon Valley at the height of the dot.com bubble inevitably drew me into the high tech world.

I worked at a start-up company named eGroups, the brainchild of Craig Paige...yes, Larry Paige's (founder of Google) brother. At the time, Google had five employees. That was the closest I came to being rich!! When eGroups was bought by Yahoo, I went to work at an online marketing firm named Modem Media. I worked as a producer exclusively on the Intel account. I was responsible for their email marketing campaign....the last time I was a spammer...I promise.

Being in California has many perks, but I longed to be closer to my family (they were still in Venezuela) and wanted to help them move away from the Chavez regime. Plus, "plátanos," my favorite food, are not too common in San Francisco. Miami was a natural choice for a new home. I moved to Miami in March 2001 without a job. A few months later, I saw a large ad in the newspaper looking for math and science teachers for Miami Dade County Public Schools. I sent my resume, applied for a temporary teaching certificate, and was soon sitting in a principal's office being interviewed for a math teaching position. Luckily, I was hired.

I started my teaching career at William H. Turner Technical Arts High School on September 11, 2001. During first period on my first day as a teacher the Twin Towers in NYC, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the rest of the country were attacked. From that day and for the next nine years at Turner Tech, I learned both the science and the art of teaching. Teaching goes beyond academics. As a teacher, I strive to broaden the world for my students. I wish to help remove any blinders and push students to explore and understand with an open heart and an open mind.

At Turner Tech, I also met my husband and, while there, I gave birth to both my children. When my youngest was born, I felt the need to spend more time with her. My solution was to become a virtual teacher at FLVS. I spent two and half years teaching Algebra 2 from the Florida room in my house. I learned the ins and outs of online learning and was even nominated as the National Online Teacher of the Year! But, the most important award came when I received the Judith Ann Smith Award for having the highest customer satisfaction rating out of all 1,400 teachers at FLVS. I think I understand kids!

When my youngest was old enough for day care, I decided it was time to go back to the classroom. As fate would have it, iPrep, the school next to my son's school (he goes to the former PLC), had an opening for a math teacher...and here I am (and so is the rest of my family!). I love the close knit community we are building while opening the virtual doors to the rest of the world for each of our students. I feel privileged to be a part of iPrep and hope to make it "a rock-and-roll, super star" school.