Michael Schufer is one of our language arts teachers here at BHS. He was born in Glendale, Calif. on October 4th. He is a Libra, who tries to see both sides in any situation, and isn’t a confrontational person.

Schufer is probably one of the most educated staff at our school; he has a couple of Masters Degrees, and is a PHD candidate. In high school,  Schufer was a 3.5 GPA student. He didn’t have the ability some students have of amazing memory. Some students are able to look at notes or vocab before a test and remember everything, Schufer wasn’t one of those students. He worked hard to get to the level of education he is now.  

Schufer said, “I was always really curious about things, like the hows and the whys about things.” He was curious about the purpose of things he was learning. He left after his sophomore year of college to take a break and rethink what he was doing. He came back and learned more about himself, and he thinks that was probably the smartest thing he ever did in school. 

Schufer traveled for a year after he got his first degree in college. He found his love of the academic study of religion, which allowed you to study so many different things in religion. He realized as he was doing the dishes he wanted to go get a graduate degree and start to teach. He didn’t always want to be a teacher. He grew up as a helper, just wanting to help anyone he could. He was just very interested in helping people become successful at things. 

Schufer traveled coast to coast in the U.S, Hawaii, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. He is the kind of traveler that likes to embed himself into the culture itself. He is interested in learning what the culture is like in these new places. He does not like the tourist separation when he travels to new places. Schufer had challenges when it came to the language in new places, and he did his best to be able to communicate with the people so he could feel like he was actually a part of their culture for the time being. 

Schufer had two chances to do archeological digs in Israel, but he had to turn them both down. Schufer’s first son was born when he first got offered the chance the first time, and then the second chance he had, the Sept.11 terrorist attacks had happened and air travel was cut off. 

Schufer’s teaching career is a long one. His first ever class he ever taught was a graduate level Greek class. He taught at a university in Los Angeles for a little bit, and then taught at the University of California. After that he and his wife decided to move to Colorado. He started teaching at CU for a class and taught for 3 years at CSU. He then started teaching at the K-12 setting. He taught in some schools in Longmont, and then wound up in the Thompson School District. His first year in Berthoud was January of 2020. He likes teaching high schoolers for the fact that high school kids are just starting to think about what they want to do in life and who they want to be. In his words, “You guys are just starting to get interesting.” 

All in all, Schufer is one of the most interesting teachers you will meet in high school. He has amazing stories to tell if you ever need some inspiration to do something with your life. He has come from a very colorful background of education, traveling, and different teaching jobs. Not to mention he is probably one of the nicest teachers you will ever meet in this school. He genuinely cares about his students and it shows in his teaching. He will do anything he can to help any one of his students and enjoys teaching them.