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Suzanna Wong sees the connection between things—between the ants, the trees, humans, health and academic success. In the words of this extremely active teacher-leader and volunteer, “Everything is connected.”
Wong was born in Hong Kong and came to Edmonton in 1965 at the age of six, without one word of English. She completed junior high at McCauley School, where she began to get involved with the students union and community activities. She speaks with great fondness of McCauley (which closed in 2010)—it was a hub of the community and had incredible teachers who embraced diversity. It is perhaps surprising that it was at this big city school she learned appreciation for the outdoors. “The school charted a Greyhound to take us to Jasper for outdoor education and camping,” she told me. “Seeing those teachers putting in time, skills and soul—that’s what most made me want to volunteer later in life.”
After graduating from Victoria Composite High School, Wong entered the Faculty of Education at the U of A. Her first teaching job was replacing a teacher on adoption leave, in Hinton in 1979. The plan was to stay for six months; thirty years later she is still there. She has been an early childhood specialist, early intervention program coordinator, reading recovery teacher, elementary science coordinator, inclusion supporting teacher and PD coordinator and has taught at the U of A as well. Global, environmental and outdoor education is her passion, and she has been greatly involved with the ATA’s Global, Environmental and Outdoor Education Council (GEOEC) for years. Along the way she also completed a graduate diploma in education and an M.Ed., at the U of A. Among her awards are an ATA Doctoral Fellowship in Education award, a Queen Elizabeth II Award and a distinguished fellow award from the GEOEC.
Somehow she finds time to volunteer for the food bank and United Way, and to volunteer coach for a ski club. She has campaigned for local politicians, held every executive position in the Evergreen Local and presents at beginning teachers’ conferences. And if she weren’t busy enough, she is currently completing a PhD in education at the U of A, with a concentration in early learning and literacy.
It is hard to imagine how she finds time for volunteer commitments, but she does: “I think it is very important for teachers to be engaged in constructing a society where there is equality and equity for every citizen.”
When I ask her what she is most proud of, she tells me: “I am very proud of my former students who learned even a tiny microbit from me about how to be a citizen. They are engaged in constructing a society that is fair and just for everyone. Some of my former students are doctors, politicians, dancers, actors, teachers, plumbers, electricians, video game designers, and one is even a magician!”
Wong laughs when she recounts her parents’ initial disappointment with her choice of career—for immigrant parents, high-paying and high-status careers in medicine and dentistry were far more desirable, but, thankfully, for the hundreds of students who learned with Wong over the ensuing decades, she had found her calling.
