She moved to the United States and began learning English when she was 21-years-old. Then she studied at Kansas State University and at Emporia State University for a Hispanic literature degree and is now bilingual and bi-cultural.

Veronica Tischhauser was born in Mexico. She has two sister and one brother that have all moved to the United States along with her parents. In Mexico her father was a lawyer and her mother was an accountant.

“I really liked the culture when I first came here as a student,” Tischhauser said. “I was fascinated with the culture. I didn’t really like to live in Mexico.”

Tischhauser taught Spanish as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at K-State for three years and has been teaching at ESU for two years.

“What’s great about (Veronica) is she has the right balance of helping us, but not carrying us,” said Alyson Bartholomew, freshman Spanish major. “She knows the best way for this information to stick is with her guidance but also allowing us to figure it out on our own. And she knows how to make it fun, which is an added bonus.”

Emily Steimel, junior psychology major, says she likes how Veronica spends extra time on the difficult concepts and makes time inside and outside of class to work on things until her students grasp them. Steimel says it is obvious how passionate Veronica is about teaching and that is part of what makes her so great at what she does.

Tischhauser met her husband, Lance Tischhauser, ten years ago through mutual friends. They have a border collie named Lucy. Veronica Tischhauser says Lance is quiet and very interested in science.

“He’s very patient and he’s a very loving man,” Veronica Tischhauser said.

“(Bicycling) is kind of a hobby that we found out, my husband and I, it’s the only thing we like to do together,” Tischhauser said. “So we got ourselves some bicycles and we love to do that together but that’s the only thing.”

Tischhauser says when she travels she would rather stay in one place long enough to understand the culture than to travel to many places just to see them. Tischhauser visited France and stayed with different friends throughout ten days and was able to see not only the tourist attractions but the local attractions as well.

“Since a very early age I wanted to travel,” Tishhauser said. “I wanted to go places. I admire people that did that and people that spoke other languages and knew other cultures. I would pretend that I spoke other languages as a kid. It was very funny.”

Tischhouser says that since a very early age she knew she wanted to be a teacher. She was always playing and pretending to be a school teacher.

“(Veronica) is very goal oriented,” said Gregory Robinson, assistant professor. “She likes to get things done. She’s very focused on what she wants to accomplish in the classroom and with the classes she teaches. She is very passionate about Spanish classes and Spanish literature.”