To know Senora Kearns is to love her.  She has a special way of making everyone feel better.  Not only is she a Spanish teacher at WHBHS, but she is a yoga instructor as well.

She started practicing yoga in 1998 as a way to cope with stress and connect with herself. After getting pregnant with twins in 2008, she began to practice more consistently and, in 2010, she started teaching ashtanga, a form of yoga practice. She has been practicing every day since then and has made her yoga practice a main focus in her life. Mrs. Kearns says that she gets all of her inspiration from her yoga teachers. 

When Mrs. Kearns was only 19 years old, she left her home country of Brazil and came to America. There were many struggles following this change, one being speaking a different language, but she says that the hardest one to face was the cultural shock and language barrier. 

She explains that overcoming this wasn’t easy, but she worked very hard to conquer her struggles. She said that she did this by “immersing myself in American culture without abandoning my own culture. I studied a lot to learn English and communicate as much as I could.” 

Her hard work really paid off because now she speaks three languages which are English, Portuguese, and Spanish. 

Mrs. Kearns and English teacher Mrs. Mett have been the best of friends since the day that they met almost 20 years ago. Mrs. Mett explains how they met saying, “I first met Mrs. Kearns the summer before she started working at WHBHS, in 2005. I grew up with her husband. I remember immediately thinking I had met someone special.” 

Mrs. Mett describes Señora Kearns as “one of the most genuine people I know.  She has a generous heart and an open mind.  She is also one of the funniest friends I have!” 

Mrs. Kearns is a very inspiring person and continuously impresses people every day. When Mrs. Mett was asked the most impressive thing about Mrs. Kearns, she said, “Mrs. Kearns’ dedication to her yoga practice, her health, and her family is what most impresses me. Also, her ability to move to this country at age 19 and learn the language well enough to write a perfect thesis for her master’s degree. She asked me to edit it and it didn’t need any changes. Her intelligence has always blown me away and simultaneously motivated me!” 

Mrs. Kearns is all around a very peaceful person and she’s worked very hard to keep calm. When asked how she does it she answered by saying, “I try to focus on one thing at a time, I practice a lot of breathing and meditation.” 

A lot can be learned from Mrs. Kearns. Her advice to stressed-out students is to, “Remember that everything in life is temporary. It is important to be present in every moment of your life whether it is a challenging moment or not.”

 “Deep breaths are not cliche. Science has demonstrated how proper breathing has a direct correlation with the nervous system, therefore take deep breaths and focus on one thing at a time.”