Meet Our Staff: Ms. Vanessa Hernandez

Southlands cannot function without certain people on campus. You might not see them, but they are hard at work behind the scenes. With that in mind, our subject for this month’s Meet Our Staff (MOS)  blog is our very own Ms. Vanessa Hernandez!

Meet Our Staff: Ms. Vanessa Hernandez

Ms. Vanessa first joined our Southlands family back in 2006 when she was 15 1/2. She started off as a Student Services counselor, along with her grandmother, for seven years. She finished her education, worked at a law firm for three years, and came back to Southlands as an accounting specialist. Ms. Vanessa has an in-depth view of Southlands as she has worn “different hats” while working. These different positions allowed her to see the love that all of our staff has for both the children and their families. She believes “our campus is a reflection of God’s love in so many ways”. 

The funniest moment she can remember while working at Southlands has to do with her sister, Nicole, who also works at Southlands. Nicole was trying to hide her bright red-dyed hair by wearing a wig since it was against policy to have unnatural colored hair. One morning, while Mr. Duncan was playing kickball with the kids, the ball hit Mrs. Nicole right on the head, which sent her wig flying off! Her kids were teasing her all week after that. 

We finished our interview with one last question: 

What does Southlands Strong mean to you?

Ms. Hernandez answered by sharing the definition of the word strong. She described strong as “having the power to move heavy weights or perform other physically demanding tasks. Able to withstand great force or pressure”. She related that definition back to Southlands as she has personally seen strength emitted from SCS time after time.