Educator Spotlight: Krista Roa

Krista Roa, director of Environmental Education at the Agape Center for Environmental Education in Fuquay-Varina, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification.

Krista works with K-8 students and leads programs for students throughout central North Carolina on topics such as water quality, animal adaptations, ecosystems, tree identification and many more. In her personal time, Krista enjoys being outdoors. “I love to kayak, paddleboard and volunteer with my sons' scout troops. With the little free time that I do have, I love to crochet, and watch movies.”

Krista says her favorite part of earning her certification was a trip she went on with her son and his scout troop to several national parks, which allowed her to participate in several activities. “We attended ranger talks about the ecosystem of Arches National Park and the mules of the Grand Canyon and went on a guided tour of the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park.”

When asked about an experience that stood out to her, Krista says it was meeting other educators. “I enjoyed networking with others in the field. It was really great to get to know new people and make friends that I can collaborate with.”

For her community partnership project, Krista built new platforms on a pond that is used for collecting water samples during field trip programs. She worked with her son and members of his scout troop to replace the platforms that were rotting and too small for a group of students to use. “The new platform made it possible for more students to collect samples for the water quality and the pond macroinvertebrates programs. The larger platforms provide a safe collecting site and also allow more students to collect at one time.”

Krista says the program led to changes in her approach to teaching. “I've become much more aware of the language I use in my programs. I've worked really hard to use language that is more inclusive and accepting of differences since I've been in the certification program. The Methods of Teaching Environmental Education course facilitated by Environmental Educators of North Carolina was extremely helpful because it gave me some in-depth background knowledge about the history of environmental education.”

The certification program also changed the way Krista thinks about environmental issues. “Since starting this certification program, I've begun looking at the different angles that each environmental issue could involve. There are so many different perspectives that come into play, and part of being a good educator is taking as many of them into account as you can. Giving people the best information I'm able to give so that they can make decisions that are beneficial to them and to others has become one of my central goals.”