If students ever walked through the halls of West Chicago Community High School, they probably would not have even noticed her room. Tucked away in one of the corners of the original building, Brittney Bauer can often be found cleaning up a messy preschool classroom, or teaching students ranging from three-year-olds to high schoolers.

Bauer’s biggest inspiration to become a teacher was her mother, who frequently volunteered at Stevenson Elementary School.

“My mom, Janyce, would always ask how peers/friends were doing. She would be silly and make them laugh. They felt comfortable around her and she was a trusted adult,’’ Bauer said.

Growing up, Bauer learned from her mother to include other people, treat them nicely, and be someone who others saw as kind and comforting to talk with. Those lessons continue to shape how she runs her classroom today, encouraging all students to participate in activities in class. 

Bauer knew from an early age that she wanted to enter the education field, though she originally believed she would teach elementary school or preschool, rather than high school. 

“Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher,” she said. 

After graduating, she realized she could have taken child development classes in high school, but her high school counselor never brought the option up. 

Bauer has learned so much from her two children. Both were born prematurely, before 37 weeks of pregnancy, which often requires special medical care. Those experiences helped her better understand childbirth, early development, and working with children with disabilities. 

“I learned how to work with children in these scenarios, how to be patient with them, and the different resources we have,”  Bauer said. “And so I really learned about working with kids in hospitals, the NICU and careers working with babies and babies that go home right away, versus babies that are in the NICU for whatever complication or reason they have.”

At WEGO, Bauer has impacted students’ lives the same way her mother did. She is someone that students can go talk to about anything. 

“Miss Bauer helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my life, which was work with children, and she has been the biggest role model for my learning that I’ve been doing, ” senior Rowen Canabal said. 

Bauer has taught at West Chicago Community High School for more than 15 years, during which time she has also served as a food teacher, and the head of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FFCLA). Bauer’s co-worker in FFCLA, Emily Renteria, who also teaches foods and sometimes subs for child development, is grateful to Bauer for getting her into FFCLA. She appreciates Bauer’s enthusiastic way of getting all involved.

“She knows everybody. She knows everyone. Everyone knows her, which is super great again, she knows the spaces. She’s familiar with the rubric. She always likes annotations and goes above and beyond for her students and chats about the organization as a whole,” Renteria said.

Former student Maggie Hofmeister, who now teaches at West Chicago Community High School in the Special Education department, credits Bauer with leaving a lasting impression. 

“I mean, like everybody I’ve talked to about Bauer, she just impacts, like all of their lives,” Hofmeister said. “I’ve had so many of my friends take classes with her, whether it was food[s], child development, whatever it may be, but she’s always just available as a teacher, but also as a person to go to.”