Senior of the Week: Kodi Suzuki Lopez

By ANVI BHATE, ERIN CHEN, and EMILIA KNIESTEDT

Whether it’s a rainy afternoon in the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), or a late night in the corner of the Wheelwright common room, senior Ramon Kodi Suzuki Lopez is always ready to welcome anyone with open arms. Heavily involved in many of campus’ multicultural events and OMA clubs, everyone who knows him can attest that Suzuki Lopez brings a sense of comfort and joy wherever he goes. 

Raised in a small neighborhood in East Los Angeles, Suzuki Lopez went to a public charter for most of his life. “The charter really embraced learning a lot more than my public school did,” Suzuki Lopez said. His public school teachers would get angry at him for being ahead of peers, whereas in the charter, they would offer extra classes.

The advanced classes led him to attending a summer program at Harvard Westlake, a private school in central Los Angeles. “There, I watched this science experiment called elephant’s toothpaste,” Suzuki Lopez said. “You pour these chemicals together in a little jar and clouds come out of that, and it looks like elephant’s toothpaste.”

The experiment showed Suzuki Lopez the vastness of opportunities and resources at a private school. “We had laptops and the essentials at my public charter, just not that extra funding,” Suzuki Lopez said. “I applied to boarding school just because I thought it would be an interesting option, because I’ve always been independent.” 

A few months later, Suzuki Lopez arrived at Exeter. He quickly made strong connections with his peers, but also encountered new struggles. “It was hard for me because, in eighth grade, my family became homeless,” Suzuki Lopez said. “I missed a lot of end-of-eighth-grade schooling and so I struggled a little bit in classes.”

“In my hometown, around 97 percent of the people are Mexican and Latino, so I was always surrounded by people who share my Mexican identity. There was a big culture shock coming here, which made me feel alone,” Suzuki Lopez added. “I also felt alone here being low income, and I felt like other people didn’t understand that struggle. It was kind of isolating, in an identity sense.” 

A person who helped him with these feelings was Giovanna Romero ’20, a senior at the time. Suzuki Lopez described how Gio was also Mexican, and a member of La Alianza Latina (LAL), an affinity group for Latino students. She invited him and some other friends to hang out in her room. “She brought out spicy Mexican candy, played music, and we heard our Chicano accents come out,” Suzuki Lopez recounted. “In that room, at that time, I really felt a sense of home again. She also forced me to go to LAL and dragged me to OMA, and those spaces have become places on campus that I really, really love and devote all of my extra time to now.”

After four years of working with OMA, Suzuki Lopez has contributed a lot to the space. In addition to leading three affinity groups, Suzuki Lopez works as an OMA proctor, and organizes many projects and events.

With senior Val Whitten, Suzuki Lopez created the Días De Los Muertos festival to appreciate the Latin American cultures that represent many students on campus. The festival shared cultural foods through a catered dinner and Latino students shared their country’s snacks and traditions through country-specific booths. A large-scale event held in Grainger, the festival will come back again this year. “He’s putting in the work to make sure that even after he leaves, it’ll be able to continue on, kind of like setting that framework for an annual tradition,” senior Andrew Serdar Espinoza said.

Another aspect of identity Suzuki Lopez wants students to feel supported in is being low-income. As a co-head of the Association of Low-Income Exonians, he works to make sure students feel understood and comfortable. In his lower year, Suzuki Lopez also gave a TED talk about his low-income identity. “I think what really drove me to do that was knowing that there were probably other low income students on campus who also feel isolated, because there’s still like a substantial amount of us who are on full financial aid. There’s a good chance that other students on campus have gone through what I’ve gone through,” Suzuki Lopez said.

Suzuki Lopez’s thoughtfulness really makes him an encouraging person to be around. “I have never witnessed Kodi being an inauthentic version of himself, and I believe he is the prime example of an amazing advocate for people who may not feel as though they have a voice,” senior Lydia Osei said. 

Suzuki Lopez is also a mentor for the Equitable Exeter Experience (E3), an OMA-run pre-orientation program for incoming students from marginalized communities. “He really made it possible to get to know the people in my group and made opportunities available for everybody there,” Dhruv Reddy, a new lower in Suzuki Lopez’s group this year said.

Layla Whitaker, a returning lower, reflected on her experience last year with Suzuki Lopez as a mentor. “He brings support. I know that if I had any question I could always go to him. Even now, a year later,” she said.

Outside of OMA, Suzuki Lopez still takes extra steps to help students. In his Japanese classroom last year, he reached out to his teacher, Ms. Tazawa before a field trip, explaining how they are a difficult endeavor for some low-income students who can’t afford to pay for experiences outside of what the school supplies. By showing how to set up a field trip stipend, he takes action for others before the problems arise. “Not only is he saving his class, he’s saving the classes in the future,” Ms. Tazawa said.

Senior Jade Pierce described Suzuki Lopez’s unmatched work ethic and dedication to working towards a more ethical campus environment. “Kodi brings a ton to Exeter. He is the only person I know who always goes the extra mile to make sure people are comfortable and held accountable. Exeter has become a much safer place with him around,” Pierce said.

Senior Lucy Meyer-Braun emphasized that Suzuki Lopez’s work benefits present, as well as future students. “Kodi leaves a legacy of making Exeter the best place for every single person who comes here. No matter what they are fighting or what’s holding them back from meaningful opportunities, he leaves a legacy of reaching out to those people and either finding them a space where they can experience everything that they deserve here, or creating one of those spaces.”

“Legacy is not like something tangible. It’s more like a feeling that you leave people with,” senior Sage Murthy said. “I feel like Kodi’s going to leave a lot of younger students with gratitude.”