Cast Spotlight: Serina Tetenov

Serina is the mother to a precious angel who lives in her heart and to two beautiful, fun, and self-confident 13 and 9-year- old boys. Serina is also partner to Alexei Ragland Tetenov with whom she will celebrate 16 years of marriage in August 2018. Serina currently works as a Psychiatric Social Worker in the Emergency Department at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is also a Sign Language Interpreter having held positions at RIT and various local freelance interpreting agencies. Serina will complete her Ph.D. in Counseling and Clinical Supervision at the University of Rochester in June of this year and looks forward to a long vacation with her very patient and supportive family. What brought you to Listen To Your Mother? LTYM was introduced to me by a friend. While initially very interested, I was nervous and did not participate at that time. However, when another friend later encouraged me to audition, I did not want to miss the opportunity to share a small but very meaningful snippet of the many rich experiences I had with my mother.

Who inspires you? I am inspired on a daily basis by many people. My children inspire me to be a better person and to take chances. My husband inspires me to be myself and to set my own course in life. I am most inspired by the lessons I learned from my mother.

She encouraged me to pursue my dreams and taught me that I am unstoppable.

What is one of your favorite parenting moments? My favorite parenting moments continue to be times when my children recall and have placed value on lessons we have learned from each other. I always wonder what my legacy will be in the minds of my children and my wish is that they grow to be self-sufficient and always know that they are loved. I am always reassured that they will be self-sufficient when they speak of their plans to travel extensively and when they dream out loud about the adventures they will pursue. But most of all, I am reassured of the love we share when my two children carefully stipulate how we can spend our time together in the future: “You can’t live with me but you can visit me at my house - on my private island. Just remember that I get to make the rules. Okay?”