Suzi Kim

This interview with Suzi Miranda (née Kim) was conducted remotely via zoom on July 12, 2022. At the time, Suzi was in Philmont, New York and Annelise was in Oakland, California. The interview was Suzi's second and final interview for the Education Narrative's Project. Suzi teaches first and second grade at a progressive private school in North Greenbush, New York and she begins the interview talking about mask wearing at her school and in her community. She describes how her school ran a vaccination clinic for students when people under 12 years old became eligible for vaccines earlier this year, and how she navigated conversations about personal choice around vaccinations and masking with her students and how her desire to make her students comfortable impacted her own mask wearing habits in the classroom. She describes the challenges of maintaining a sense of normalcy even as students in her class became sick and how fellow teachers provided her with support and both at her current school and the before when she was leading a homeschool pod. She reflects on her own resilience during the last two years and describes how this summer feels more carefree than previous summers. She ends the interview sharing the feeling that something like the COVID-19 pandemic will happen again, and her experience will have prepared her to meet that moment when it arrives.