Completing her 21st year here at Alisal, math teacher Catharina Beussen is marking the 2025-26 year as her last, after 22 years of teaching mathematics. 

Beussen was born in the Netherlands, where she spent her childhood working with her parents. “I decided not to go to college straight after high school because I was working in the business of my parents, growing bulbs,” she said. “I was working in the fields every summer. I never had time off.” She decided that she would stop working in the bulb business and try something else since she didn’t want to keep doing that every summer. 

After some time Beuseen became a secretary, and went to Secretarial College in the Netherlands for one year. After that, she worked at the National Aerospace Laboratory in Amsterdam with a group of aeronautical engineers, who came from various European countries.  “I worked there for about a year and a half, almost two years and then I applied for a job at a vegetable seed business in the town where I lived so I didn’t have to commute as much,” she said. “I was there until they didn’t want to give me a raise, and I thought I worked too hard for them not to be able to give me a raise.”

When she left, she applied at a bank and was amazed when they wanted to hire her to become a bank manager of a subsidiary. This was shocking for Beussen since she had always thought that she couldn’t do numbers or math. A year later, In 1989 she decided to get married and move to Salinas, where her husband was offered a job by the same seed company, Royal Sluis that she used to work for. “We moved here from the Netherlands, that’s where I was born,” she said. “I worked in Castroville at a transplant grower as an office manager until my first daughter was born. When my second daughter went to preschool I decided maybe I should try college.”

So she went to Hartnell College, not to become a math teacher, but to become an elementary school teacher since she thought she couldn’t do mathematics. “I thought that I should just go study to become an elementary school teacher which really after I became a math teacher made me scared out of my mind because I always got students who couldn’t do fractions or who couldn’t do basic mathematics that they should have learned in elementary school,” she said. 

After getting her Associates of Science she started attending San Jose State University where she realized that the one class that she enjoyed the most was mathematics because she just happened to have a great professor who made her believe she can do it. 

In the meantime, while she was working on her bachelor’s at San Jose State, Beussen worked as a substitute  and after she got her bachelor’s she received a call from the principal at Harden Middle School, where she accepted the offer of becoming a math teacher and that is when she became affiliated with our district. “I wanted to start a master’s program in mathematics but when the principal offered her a job she said, “Oh well, I might as well make some money instead of spending it on more education.” 

Beussen found out something very interesting teaching at Harden. “I decided that I liked being a math teacher, the first year teaching at Harden Middle School was very difficult,” she said.  “And then when I came here [Alisal] I realized I needed to work on a credential, so that’s what I got through Chapman University.” 

Years later, she started her masters in Curriculum and Instruction through the University of Concordia Portland and graduated in 2015. “I finished the masters and that’s actually the only graduation I attended,” she said. “My daughters came along with me and it was an experience to walk the line with everyone there.”

When she started teaching, there were still traditional math classes like Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2. It wasn’t until 10 years into her career that she started teaching statistics. “If I teach statistics, then I want to teach AP Statistics. So I did the whole training and became certified by AP Central to teach the course of AP Statistics,” she said. “I’ve taught a pretty large number of different courses, but statistics, that was really the cherry on top of my cake.”

This year she is teaching Math Analysis, Math 3, and AP Statistics. She didn’t expect to be teaching Math Analysis this year. “The admin assigned the classes and I actually didn’t want to teach math analysis this year, but some events occurred and it automatically went to me so I had to go with it,” she said.

While Alisal was changing throughout the years, Beussen was also changing with it. “I think at the beginning I was too demanding in a sense. I had high expectations,” she said. “But I think I’m more in tune with the needs of students now that I was in the beginning. I think that’s what changed the most.”

Beussen really thinks highly of the students and environment here. “I really admire my students here at Alisal because you guys were definitely not born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You had to be a lot more self driven,” she said.

There have been major changes throughout the 21 years that Beussen has taught at Alisal. “I remember coming here to apply for a job and it looked like a juvenile hall, we still had metal fencing around the school,” she said. “We made incredible progress. I think the students experience our campus now as a safe haven, a place where they like to go and be shielded from the rest of the world.”

Her way of teaching has definitely hit some students harder than others. “Some of the students have visited me over the years and visited me during lunch and then just shared their experience at the college and generally what I get from them is that they feel that I really prepare them for college rigor,” she said. “Many of you told me that I really pushed you guys and made you work harder than you thought you could. But that’s going to benefit you, especially when you go to college because that’s really the level of learning that you’re going to have to do.” 

Beussen is looking forward to not having to deal with the view board that had a habit of dying on her, not commuting 40 minutes each way, and reading lots of books. “I have plans to go to Hawaii with my friend and also attend my niece’s wedding in the Netherlands, so it’s going to be special.”

But just because she’s retiring doesn’t mean she will stop working with young people. One place she plans on volunteering is Covenant House. “It’s a program for homeless youth and so I’m just going to give them a call once I settle in, being retired and just ask them if there is something that I can do for them like being a mentor for a student or doing some tutoring work.” 

Not being around a bunch of teenagers will be an adjustment that will take some time adapting to. “I think the biggest challenge when I retire is going to be the routine I have,” she said. “It’s having purpose in life, feeling that I have a purpose in life, and that’s something that I will have to deal with to come to grips with, and that’s why I’m also thinking maybe volunteering for a worthy cause may help me fill in some routine activities to keep me not being bored.”

For Beussen, every sunset is just the prelude to a brilliant sunrise. She is ready for anything that comes her way and has truly enjoyed her years teaching a subject she once thought she could never understand. “Mathematics gave me a chance to teach students and add some visual tools to use in order to answer questions,” she said. “Lots of times in math students tend to feel overwhelmed by formulas, but if you can visualize it, you can create it and it falls into place.”

Corrections: Beussen completed her 21st year at Alisal and her 22nd year of teaching overall. She didn’t go back to college until her second daughter was in preschool. She subbed while working on her bachelor’s. She will be attending her niece’s wedding in the Netherlands.

The story has been updated and we apologize for the errors.