Everyone remembers a teacher who was, for lack of a better term, special: a teacher who was adored by every one of their students and saw more than test scores and grades. A teacher who truly loved their job and encouraged exploration and discovery beyond the curriculum. It’s no secret to the Shorecrest community that Upper School Science Teacher Bernadette Kozlowski is one of these special teachers, which makes her departure all the more devastating to many students.

     After the 2025-2026 school year draws to a close, Kozlowski will move back to Pennsylvania, where she grew up, having accepted a job as Academic Dean at Scranton Preparatory School. For Koslowski, the decision wasn’t easy.

     “I thought long and hard about it,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to go somewhere brand new and start over again, but I’m very familiar with the school. I have family in the area and some of my best friends, and I miss mountains a lot more than I thought I would. To [only see them] once or twice a year is not enough.”

     The natural landscape of the mid-Atlantic region is something Kozlowski is especially nostalgic for.

     “Walking in woods where you’ve got the old hardwoods—the maples and the pines and the hemlocks and the oak trees … It’s spectacular,” she said. “There’s something about the trees … [being away] just leaves you hungry for it.”

     However, Kozlowski’s move to Florida was a choice, one that she does not regret.

     “There were a few reasons [I chose Shorecrest],” Kozlowski said. “I talked to [Head of Upper School Erich Schneider], we had a great conversation, I flew down here within a week, did my interview and loved it.”

      But for Kozlowski, the thing that really convinced her that Shorecrest was the right place was the students.

     “They genuinely want to connect with you,” she said. “They’re curious about learning. They care about their grades … there are some great people here.”

    Kozlowski’s approach to teaching and genuine compassion for her students keeps this curiosity alive.      

     “I think I sincerely care about my students, and I try to make them feel seen and heard no matter what their grades are, [and] tell them that they’re a whole individual, not just a student,” she said. “There’s a Latin phrase called ‘curate personalis,’ which [means,] ‘care for the whole person,’ and I try to [do] that. You know, some kids, I absolutely love them, and they’re barely passing my class. I don’t judge them based on their grades.”

     In her classroom, homework has due dates, but it isn’t considered “late” until the day of a test. Students get one free, no-reason-given assessment rescheduling per semester. If someone does have a reason to postpone an assignment or due date — like a sports game, family commitment or health issue — she never fails to make accommodations.

     This holistic attitude extends beyond her teaching. Soon after arriving at Shorecrest, Kozlowski found herself alarmed by the stress her students were experiencing, which is why she began hosting weekly guided meditations at break on Tuesdays.

     “Students have told me [that] their grades have gotten better because they’re not going into a physiological “freeze,” and I like that. [In] small groups, I can work with kids one on one and give them that support,” she said. “We’re in this culture of stress — stress is just how it’s supposed to be. [So] when they get permission to rest and chill and take some time for themselves, they hit a reset button.”

     Kozlowski’s approach to managing stress didn’t come from nothing. In fact, at the beginning of her teaching career, she said she was “pretty intense.”

     It took a near-death experience for that to change.
    “I would teach all year, I would coach one or two sports [and] I was a director of the summer camp,” Kozlowski said. “So I was working 51 weeks a year. I would take that one week off after the end of summer camp, go to the beach, pass out for a week and do it [all over] again.”

     However, when Kozlowski’s mother died, this vicious cycle fell apart.
“My mom passed, and layering on the grief on top of [everything else], my body just gave out,” she said. “My summer camp started, and I was the director, and I thought the camp couldn’t run without me. So I showed up that morning. I had been sick for a few days, and I told my staff I was laying down for an hour before [everyone arrived]. 24 hours later, I’m still in bed, and now I’m going to the hospital. Camp ran just fine without me, but I was in the hospital for five days. I almost died.”

     Pneumonia is a life-changing disease, and Kozlowski took it as a wake-up call.

     “I just remember sitting there [saying to myself], I get to rest. I get to rest,” Kozlowski said. “As a meditation coach, I see [it] all the time. If you’re sick or on vacation, that’s the only time you’re allowed to take a rest. I’m trying to change that cultural mindset.”

     After Kozlowski recovered, she quit her teaching job to lead meditations full-time.

     “The day I resigned from that job, I said [to myself,] ‘I need to really learn how to do this for myself and for my students, and then I’ll go back.’ And so to be able to come here has been wonderful, [and now] to go back to the school that I left, just kind of an ideal opportunity. [I’ve come] full circle.”

      Kozlowski has shown many that there are alternatives to living life at breakneck speed.

     “It’s not sustainable. It doesn’t serve anybody,” she said. “I first thought [it was] normal, and then [when] I got out of teaching, I knew I had to do this differently. I’m trying to share that with students when they’re younger versus when they’re 45.”

     Above all else, Kozlowski wants her students to keep learning for the sake of learning.

     “[Know] that you matter more than your grades,” she said. “Stay curious. Find something you love to learn. Curiosity is everything.”