Welcome to the Studio of Suzie Hightshoe

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There is a way that life speaks. If we are quiet enough, we can hear the story. Suzie considers herself fortunate to have had the opportunity to be born born into a family that cherishes nature, all things great and small, which has enabled her to share that story through the media of photography. Photography is Suszie's love and her passion.

Suzie comes from a family with an extensive history of teaching and education. Three of her Aunts, her father Clarence's sisters, were pillars of Iowa Educations creating a more than 150 year combined legacy. Suzie gifted the Museum of Education at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, manuscripts and printed teaching materials used by Lucile Helen Hightshoe Marine, Martha M. Highthsoe Schemmel, and Lena Lorraine Hightshoe Turnipseed - throughout their careers in education. The records include plays, dialogues, poems, recitations, school program line-ups, and sheet music. The material dates from 1923-1942, although a majority of the items date from circa 1930's.

According to Suzie, Photography IS storytelling. 

As an Iowa educator of 40 years, she received local, state, and national recognition for making people, places, and things have meaning for students. 

• 1999 Excellence in Teaching Award (Russia) American Council for International Education's (ACIE)
• 1998 Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program (Japan): The Fulbright Memorial Fund (FMF) Teacher Program (1997–2008) was a prestigious, fully funded initiative sponsored by the Government of Japan to foster mutual understanding by sending U.S. primary and secondary educators on three-week study visits. It honored the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Fulbright Program. 
• 1998 Good Neighbor Award Finalist, State Farm Insurance
• 1996 National Social Studies Teacher of the Year, NCSS
• 1994 State Social Studies Teacher of the Year, ICSS

Programs and Projects

After spending two weeks on a bus that covered 2000 miles of history, people, and places through a graduate course, Iowa: Eye to I, I developed a simulated archaeology dig for fifth graders. This simulation morphed into an archaeology program, Explorations in Archaeology, to be offered by the History Center in Cedar Rapids to ten area school districts.  (Learn more at ERIC, the Institute of Education Sciences at ED.gov.)

In the summer of 1996, my passion to make history come alive inspired a once in a lifetime experience for 45 fifth and sixth graders during Iowa’s Sesquicentennial. We traveled through time with each day of the week’s itinerary focused on a different theme. We doused an old cemetery, had a penmanship lesson in a county school, hiked a trail at Effigy Mounds National Monument, rode a steamboat on the Mississippi, shared an authentic Norwegian dinner in Decorah, walked alongside a wagon train, made camp in an open field, ate a chuck wagon dinner, and slept under the stars. Our memories were captured with video to share with families and the community.

Memoirs of a School Teacher

Serving on a state wide committee, Suzie was deeply involved in creating Iowa's History curriculum. Additionally, she served as the first Co-Chair of the first-ever annual Novak Elementary County Fair. This event was a culmination of our Iowa History studies which profiled the time period of 1850-1939, telling stories of the early Iowa settlers.

My father shared his book, Clarence, with my fifth grade classes. The book told his survival story during WWII through photographs and newspaper clippings. He was a navigator on a B-17 which was shot down over Germany and was one of the fortunate few who made it out alive.

Bridging the gap between generations after exchanging stories with a story buddy from a retirement community minimized the fear children had of older people, and the fear older people had of children, when both generations realized there is a common thread of mischievousness and sameness throughout time. One of the residents was over 100 years of age.

Memories of the retirement community:

We wanted to see a dead chicken fly one more time, so we tied it to a windmill.

My horned goat followed me to school, stuck its head in the window and intimidated the teacher so much, she sent someone to fetch my dad to get the goat. She was so relieved when Dad arrived, school was dismissed early!

We decided to take a vacation during the school year. I was terribly excited as we packed our covered wagon.

I rode a mule through a ditch of mud and snakes. (I was not allowed to ride the mule) When Mom asked me how I got so dirty I said, “It’s a long story and it’s not very interesting.”

A hook from a hay loader caught me in the hand. My dad rushed me to the country doctor, and without anesthesia, he sewed my gash. The scar was shaped like a big V, the symbol for our victory shortly after WWII.

“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” 

 Jonathan Gottschall

Photography stimulates our senses.

Through the camera lens,

I can hear the deafening sound of thunder in a lightning storm

I can see the mesmerizing snowdrops dance in the wind

I can smell the sweet fragrance of a lily in bloom

I can touch the fluffy fur of my kitten

I can taste the bold flavor of a Starbuck’s coffee

Photography connects people to the world, other people, and places in the world. 

Traveling to both Japan and Russia as an educational ambassador culminated in the making of videos to share likenesses and differences of different cultures around the world.

Welcome to the Studio of the amazing and enlessly talented Suzie Hightshoe. Susan, or Suzie, is one of the Kate Shu Collective Resident Artists and a valuable member of the Monarch Shoppe. We're so happy you're here.