(Photo: G Wyatt)
Andrea Kaufmann was born on November 5, 1982 and raised here in Los Angeles, California by her parents: her mom, being from Ecuador and her dad, from Mexico. Even though Andrea was born and raised here in California, her first language was Spanish. Funny story, Andrea learned some of her first words in Spanish from a Rice Krispies box. Andrea learned English in school when she was in 2nd grade.
Andrea attended Pasadena Community College and earned her AA and her AS there. She then attended Cal State Northridge for a year and a half but didn\’t enjoy it, so Andrea finished her bachelors at Cal Arts, an art school in Valencia. She started working in the film industry when she was 21 and continued in the industry for 10 years. Andrea worked as a camera operator, an assistant director, infomercial director, and as a production manager. Mostly Andrea worked in pre-production, which is a process of putting everything together and figuring out how to shoot a project before the actual filming begins. When Andrea was an assistant director she worked on a few feature films, including “Counterpunch” and “Drive-By Chronicles: Sidewayz.”
Andrea quit the film industry after 10 years and became a stay at home mom because working so many hours and taking care of her kids was too much to handle. Andrea then taught her kids how to speak Spanish and do sign language as they grew older. Andrea came back to the film industry for a year but it was challenging. One day Andrea was taking a tour of PathFinders and Mrs. Cheraz reached out to the parents and asked, “Does anyone have a fun class or maybe a games class they would like to teach?” That same summer, Andrea was tutoring some of her friends and neighbors\’ kids on math skills. The way she was teaching it was through games, and so she was originally going to do the game schooling class. As Andrea puts it, “Mrs. Cheraz remembered that I spoke Spanish and asked me if I could teach the K-2 Spanish class. It wasn’t my intention originally. It just kind of happened.”
Andrea’s experience here at PathFinders has been overwhelmingly positive. “I enjoy teaching, it\’s a lot of fun,” she said, “especially when the kids have ‘A-ha!’ moments, like when they get it or whenever they remember what was taught. That\’s always fun.” Unfortunately for the PathFinders community, Andrea and her family plan on selling their home, buying a recreational vehicle and touring the country after the Spring 2025 semester is over. We’re going to miss them, and we wish them the best of luck in their new adventures.
