Miranda Miller has been out and proud since middle school. A large part of her childhood and high school years was marked by her self-identity discovery within the queer community. 

“My college essay was about being queer and discovering myself and my identity,” Miller said. “And my mom, being very supportive, looked into all of the colleges I was applying to and the resources they had for queer students. It was actually my mom who was like, ‘Oh, they do have a queer group on Northern’s campus.’”

Despite Miller already knowing about Queers and Allies, NMU’s LGBTQ+ student organization, when she first arrived on campus in 2019, Miller was hesitant to sign up right away. She continued to walk past the Fall Fest booth for Queers and Allies, trying to work up the nerve to say ‘hi’ and write her name down on the mailing list.

“I saw a beautiful woman, who happens to be my partner now, at that table. So that definitely helped,” Miller said. “I definitely passed the table probably 10 times before I put my name down. I was a little intimidated by Kendra. I love Kendra, but she was intimidating at the time.”

After her first few meetings, Miller became a constant fixture at Queers and Allies meetings and found a close group of friends and family, including her partner Kendra Laupp.

Five years later, Miller is finishing her fourth year as president of Queers and Allies and is preparing to become the queer teacher she was influenced by growing up.

“I had a really influential couple of teachers in junior year and senior year of high school,” Miller said. “Specifically my theater teacher and my forensics speech and debate teacher … both of them really influenced me a lot and in high school I, being a queer student, was not always in the best place. Having an influential teacher in my life really made an impact, so I knew I wanted to make impacts on other students.”

Miller was constantly told growing up that she would make a great teacher. Despite knowing that she loved working with kids and being in education, Miller first entertained the idea of attending Northern’s culinary school when she applied. However, she soon realized that her strengths were in teaching and she could make a positive impact as an unapologetically queer teacher. 

She is now finishing her final semester of student teaching and will graduate in May with a degree in elementary education with a focus in integrated science and a minor in mathematics.

“I’ve been navigating being a queer teacher, and how I can be completely out as a teacher, especially in this world and this time,” Miller said. “I’m working towards trying to be a positive influence on students always, to be themselves and to foster an inclusive and comfortable classroom so that students can be themselves.”

 Miller has also managed to create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ college students while leading Queers and Allies, one of the largest student organizations on campus. She has helped organize events such as the annual drag show, queer prom, queer closet, educational panels and lavender graduation in collaboration with the Student Equity and Engagement Center. 

One of her proudest accomplishments, however, is organizing the attendance of around two dozen NMU students at the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference (MBLGTACC) every year. The 2024 MBLGTACC will be held at NMU this October and is partially planned by students in Queers and Allies. 

“Planning [the trip to MBLGTACC]  is always chaos, but as soon as we’re on the trip, our drive back is always the best part,” Miller said. “It sounds like it shouldn’t be … but driving back and hearing everybody’s conversation of what they did and connecting with everybody is the best thing … and hearing everybody connecting with everyone and making really close friendships throughout the whole trip.”

Miller has also prioritized student connections and safe spaces. Once COVID-19 hit during her second semester, opportunities for bonding experiences were limited. Miller, along with Vice President Avery Zahlmann, made a point to bring back After Meeting Eating at their weekly Queers and Allies meetings.

“My freshman year, every Wednesday we would go to Applebee’s after our meeting. It was so much fun. It was the glue that held Q&A together. We got to be ourselves. We got to hang out and not just be on campus but to take it off campus. It was a really fun experience. … we, like Avery and I, wanted to make it a point to bring it back because it was so impactful to us as freshmen. And to give that space to other freshmen and other queer students, we wanted to bring it back.”

As she leaves her role of president after four years, Miller hopes she has left the group with enough resources and knowledge to continue Queers and Allies successfully. 

“There are a lot of the stressors that we went through, and just trying to pass that knowledge down so students are aware and don’t get hurt. And that’s like the biggest thing I think I’ve been working towards,” Miller said. “We have built up tubs of resources that we’ve collected over the years and things for events like queer prom that people can reuse, so they’re not constantly buying things … we are trying to set the future of Queers and Allies up for success.”

Miller will bring her positivity, resilience and confidence from her student organization leadership to her future classrooms. She hopes to continue making positive changes for all students and creating community around her.

“It definitely is interesting, especially in the teaching world of today. It’s kind of a struggle and it has been a push and pull for me throughout college, because asking those questions in my education classes, I don’t have teachers that know the answer of how to navigate being a queer teacher,” Miller said. “It’s been interesting navigating it myself without being able to talk to too many people about it … I’m still navigating how exactly that’s going to work but definitely, it’s not something I’m going to hide.”