student guest post: joyce

Today I'd like to share with you the story of one of my former students. I've had the privilege of teaching Joyce for the past two years, and this fall she will be heading off to the wide world of high school. I still remember the first question she asked me, on her first day of 7th grade: "Our textbook is called Life Science for Christian Schools. How is that different from life science in a regular school?" Blog readers, meet Joyce.

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Hi, my name is Joyce and I was one of Miss Bertschi’s students for two years at Black Forest Academy. Some facts about me: I was born in Zurich, Switzerland and have lived in the SAME room all my life until I came to BFA in August of 2009. I am now 15 years old and I’m going into my freshmen year at BFA. I love cats and have two beautiful ones at home. I own three passports which I may all keep even after I turn eighteen: Swiss, German and American (don’t ask why, it’s a long story). I love most anything that has to do with music, especially worship and anything that has to do with honoring God with music. I’m technically a songwriter and I love having close relationships with people, especially God!

My Father is the Pastor of a church which they started more than 20 years ago. Therefore, I grew up in church and my life consisted of school, home and church. My least favorite of these of course was school. Don’t get me wrong, I love learning new things, but this was a Swiss public school and one of the worst in the area (You can’t choose which one you go to unless you go to private school). I had no true friends and it was very hard to stay true to my relationship with God, which is what I wanted to have priority in my life. I had soon become somewhat depressed during my 6th grade year because of various reasons: teachers, students, peer pressure, friends, grades. I only made it out of depression with God’s help and shortly after that I enrolled at BFA for my 7th grade year (Gods timing is always the best!). I was now a Boarding Student at BFA at the age of 13 and finally had great friends, a God-serving environment and awesome teaching!

My 7th grade I had Miss Bertschi as my Life Science teacher and if I’m honest then I must tell you that I wasn’t too fond of her. Later I had to admit that I very much appreciated her style of teaching, her excitement for us students and the material and that the reason for not liking the class was definitely NOT her but Life Science (don’t ask me why).

Joyce (right) and Karyn studying DNA as a 7th grader

8th Grade made ALL the difference! I loved the class, Earth Science, and I loved the teaching and the teacher, Miss Bertschi. I’m pretty sure that if you’re reading this you know that none of the teachers at BFA do their job for the money, they don’t get any from the school, and so they do their job from a completely different perspective, from a perspective of Love, a Love for God and for their students.

I don’t know how many hours she spent on YouTube, searching for videos she could use to show in class to make class a bit more exciting, or sometimes a bit more nerdy. :) She must have spent hours putting together THE AWESOMEST note-packets you could ever make for a class. Miss Bertschi tried her hardest to make class fun, new, exciting and to get to know her students as well as she could, from my perspective, she succeeded in every one of those areas. (For your information, she didn’t tell me anything specific that I should write about in her blog, this is ALL from me!)

I consider myself blessed to have been able to get to know her a little more than some students did. I was able to ask her questions about life situations, my relationship with God and others, so I think in some ways she was one of my mentors at BFA. One of favorite memories of 8th grade happened because of her, we were playing volleyball in Lugano together with some other teachers and students and she made it SO much funnier! Or, being on the passenger seat while she drove us to Lugano while listening to her awesome Lugano-Mix!

During the infamous van breakdown in Lugano - Joyce, Karyn and I
chatting about life and boys ;)

If you’ve ever met Miss Bertschi, then you know how awesome she is, but let me tell you that she’s also an incredible teacher and I think BFA needs her desperately. She is still in need of more support as a missionary and I as one of her former students encourage you to pray about becoming one of her monthly supporters or even one-time supporters. If you want to invest your money in something good, well then you’re in the right place to give. Please think about it.

I will definitely miss having Miss Bertschi as my Science teacher but I love having the joy of still seeing her around and the joy of knowing that she can impact so many more students like she has these past two years in my life and the lives of many other students.

I love you Miss Bertschi! 

PS: Just a little fun fact about Miss Bertschi: She usually picks out which earrings she’s going to wear (that day) before she chooses the clothes so that she can match the clothes to the earrings! I love that about her!

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I hope you enjoyed getting to know one of my students! And thanks, Joyce, for sharing with us!

If you are interested in supporting me, please see this post for more information.