9/11 Remembrance: Teaching saved my soul, but also saved my life

By Philip Haldiman
Mail | X: @PhilipHaldiman

In 1999, Suzanne DeStefano was working for a Fortune 500 company in the financial industry when she received a promotion that landed her in the clouds.

At the time, that was the 99th floor of the North Towner of the World Trade Center in New York City. One couldn’t get much higher than that. And what a view she had.

Top of the heap, like Sinatra once sang.

At 25 years old, DeStefano said, it was so glamorous and exciting to work in the Big Apple, with a secretary showing her the ropes in a high-stress industry in a hyper fast-paced metropolis. It was like a page taken out of a TV script or Hollywood movie.

But she said she wasn’t happy.

“I was missing something. I had always felt a calling to be a teacher, and that calling got stronger as I got older,” DeStefano said. “That was my real dream.”

So as she toiled high atop the world in the financial sector, she also worked on the ground level as a substitute teacher and studied toward her master’s degree in education. In the evenings and on weekends, she volunteered teaching illiterate adults how to read, through the program Project Read.

During that time, she met her fiancée, Rob, who also worked in the World Trade Center South Tower. He proposed to her at the restaurant Windows on the World, which was on the top floor of the World Trade Center.

They left New York in July 2001 for DeStefano’s home state of California so she could pursue a teaching career. They got married the next month, and DeStefano started her first teaching job in September.

As she drove to work on the eleventh day of the month, her car radio told of a tragedy in Lower Manhattan. When she got to work, she saw it on television.

American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed into the North Tower. Then United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower.

Looking back, she didn’t know where the stairs were located in the North Tower. But that wouldn’t have mattered. Everyone in the office that day who DeStefano knew perished.

That could have been me, she said.

“I was confused and in disbelief. I started crying and felt really sick. Just the shock of knowing a lot of people and thinking that they were trapped,” she said.

DeStefano is still affected by the experience, but distance and time has tempered her emotions. She still feels sadness for the co-workers she lost and the families who lost loved ones that day.

“Sometimes I reflect on how horrible that day was, but people also put aside their differences and the country was united, loving and supporting each other. And that was a very powerful and beautiful experience,” she said.

More than two decades later, DeStefano is now the headmaster at Great Hearts Archway Glendale Academy in Peoria, where she honors 9/11 every year.

She has years of experience as a teacher and administrator that have accumulated since that fateful day in New York City.

Out of the dust and rubble and debris that has long settled, DeStefano has made a difference working with children and helping guide countless lives since that day, which stands as a marker for her early days as an educator.

And the 9/11 anniversaries stand as a reminder for her — a reminder of the importance of pursuing one’s dreams, and the rewarding nature of teaching, as opposed to monetary or other materialistic endeavors.

“Life is precious and you never know what the future holds, so we should be thankful for what we have,” she said. “I have joked that teaching saved my soul, but it also saved my life.”

Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman. We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.

Philip Haldiman
Senior News Editor | Peoria

phaldiman@iniusa.org

Meet Philip
Haldiman is an award-winning journalist who most recently took first place for investigative reporting in 2023 from Arizona Newspapers Association. He joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2015, covering Sun City West his first year. Since 2016, he has covered the city of Peoria. Prior to coming to INI, he was a reporter with The Arizona Republic for seven years, covering numerous cities throughout the Valley. Before that, he was a freelance writer.

Community: Haldiman spearheads the Peoria Independent Hometown Heroes Awards program, honoring local individuals and businesses that give back to the community. He has hosted local candidate forums over the years and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Haldiman also served as a member of the Journalism Program Community Advisory Board at Glendale Community College. Outside journalism, Haldiman served as a member of the city of Peoria Complete Count Committee for the Census, 2019-2020. Lastly, he has served as a member of his HOA governing board since 2021.

Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications and a BA in Theater. 

Random Fact: Haldiman is a fourth-generation Arizonan as well as wrote and produced an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.

Hobbies: He enjoys hiking Arizona’s mountainous landscapes and is currently working on a play for the stage.