Portrait: Rija and Mathéo

Cat Cutillo

Rija Ramahatra and his son, Mathéo, at Niquette Bay State Park in Colchester

"We're very fortunate because the YMCA opened during COVID. It's tough to be a parent in the United States. I think our experience is not atypical. I think everyone is in the same boat, just with a different story." tweet this

For 12 years, Rija Ramahatra has worked as associate program director for the master's degree in nursing at Norwich University. He left briefly in 2018 to begin medical school at the University of Medicine and Health Sciences on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts and Nevis. But when the pandemic hit, his school closed temporarily, and Ramahatra moved back to Vermont so that he could rejoin Norwich. He also works part time as a medical assistant at Central Vermont Medical Center's ExpressCare clinic in Berlin, which has offered COVID-19 testing this year. His wife, Brooke Bento Ramahatra, is a traveling nurse currently working in the University of Vermont Medical Center's women's health services. Their 4-year-old son, Mathéo, is in his first year of preschool, attending both the YMCA in Winooski and Poker Hill School in Underhill.