A Project Cut Short, A School Year Cut Shorter

I spent the first half of my senior spring semester focused on one teacher, Kirsten Alderdice. I will become a teacher next year in New York City, so I wanted a project centered around education. I found Kirsten at the Expedition School, a charter school in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Kirsten teaches seventh and eighth grade English, and I was able to join several of her classes to watch how she and her students interacted. The Friday before spring break, I met with Kirsten to go over how I could gain more access to her life and see the holistic person she is. I learned that she is very involved in the school itself, always saw herself as becoming a teacher, and that she loves living in Hillsborough. I remember her saying, “You couldn’t have picked a better townie,” and I was excited to finish out the rest of my project with her.

However, due to COVID-19, my project trajectory changed from this focus on education to my experience in quarantine back in Durham. The video below details that quarantine.