Susan Henshaw

WELCOME to EQUIP 210!

Hello dear Students and Families.  I am Mrs. Henshaw and I have been blessed to teach the 2024-25 Elective Class for Try Engineering.  I am so glad you are part of this class and am looking forward to having a great year full of fun and good times learning new amazing things together.  I pray we get to know each other and share our ideas and God given talents while we get to create and build interesting things and grow together in Christs' Unity.  

I come from a family with a background of many different Engineering skills.  I grew up building with my Dad as a young kid, who taught me the art of Masonry: Brick & Block laying of our family home foundation which included two fireplaces, a storage cellar, septic well and a giant garage and instilled in me that no one should be afraid of a little hard work! "It's good for you!  It builds character... and muscles!"  Well, my "summer jobs" have always included: helping Dad to cut felled trees and accumulating our large winter supply of needed firewood and also for cord deliveries for extra income and helping him along with side jobs, while constantly at his elbow learning how to hunt, fish and trap, I also became certified to do private babysitting, helping my Godmother run a busy Nursery and Day Care, Community Lifeguard, Waitress, Wedding Caterer, Short Order Cook (in a local Family Diner), Town of Carmel Highway Department (laying Blacktop and fixing roads) and four years as a Town of Carmel Police Cadet in training along side my favorite Lt. Uncle Larry.  In High School and College, I studied Art and Computer Science becoming a Computer Programmer and IT Technician at Maryknoll Fathers in Ossining, NY for 14 years. 

I always knew who God was, being brought up in a Roman Catholic church.  Dad was an Altar boy for many years and Mom had gone to Catholic school most of her early education (they married early while in high school)  I attended Church every Sunday with my Grandparents, but CCD classes on Wednesday nights didn't answer the nagging questions I had about God.  While working at Maryknoll, side by side with my bosses who were Priests and Lay Missioners all over the world, a dear co-worker asked me to go on a Women's retreat weekend for three whole days (May 4-6, 1989).  In that upper prayer room, 4:30 in the afternoon, my heart melted.  All the childhood pain and suffering i carried and endured in my 25 years, had been forgiven and released in an instant.  His Peace and love washed thru me and cleansed me from the inside out, replacing my broken, shattered heart with a brand new full Heart of Jesus' Love.    Praise God! AMEN!

My husband, David, whom I was dating at the time, had been brought up Presbyterian.  His family was very private about speaking openly regarding God.  I made sure the friend who married us, Pastor James Terrelli, found us both to be equally yolked in His eyes (We were only doing this once!)  Not much for church going, David prayed with me, at times, and every Saturday night he would ask me "You going to church?... You taking the boys?" followed by "Yes, dear. Yes. You coming with us?"..."Nope"..."Want me to find a new church?"..."Nope".    David and his family were all Electrical Engineers.  Our sons, Parker (26) and Alden (23), both dedicated to the Lord, freely gave their hearts to Jesus at age five and water Baptized at Valley.  They work in the field as USMC Aeronautical/Communications and Mechanical/Electrical Engineering. 

David grew up in the town of Somers, NY and I as the rival school, grew up in a small hamlet of Mahopac, just 30 minutes South of here.  We moved up here in 1989 and I have been blessed to teach our Valley Kids for the past 29 years.  I am also a Certified HHA (Home Health Aide) and have been taking care of senior adults for the past twenty years, who want to live safely in their homes.  Our sons and I are also the main Caregivers to David, who had a near death motorcycle accident back in 2012.  By God's Grace and a complete miracle, David is a TBI Survivor (from a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury) with short-term memory... so there is never a dull moment at our house ; )  The Lord has used this opportunity as a blessing to our family to use in local Ministry as members of the Christian Motorcyclist Association for adults and youth throughout Duchess and the surrounding tri-counties.  Yes... we all still ride our own bikes -- even our little Mini pure-bread Dox, Haley Rose, was trained as Davids' service dog and traveled with us wherever we went for 14 years.  It's in the blood. <3

In searching for these lessons to teach, I found out... students who learned Math and Science later in High School ~ found the classes to be really boring and much harder to understand... where as young kids who learn the fun way, enjoy Math and Science skills and go on to become all different types of Engineers.  This year, we are going to look into some of the newly created and upcoming fields of Engineering which has expanded and are really sooo cool!  Looking forward to seeing you all in September... and no worries... I have your old notebooks (and new ones for our new students) so we can look back on what we learned before, share and expand our horizons thru His Eyes with His Word and using the Seven Pillars as our solid Foundation!

Blessings to you and all your family,                                                                   ~~  In His undying service and love,

Mrs. Susan Henshaw