Educator Spotlight: Sarah Goldsmith

Sarah Goldsmith, environmental educator for Wake County Parks, Recreation and Open Space, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification. Sarah teaches more than 3,000 participants a year and works with many different types of organizations and groups. “I work with a variety of groups such as homeschool, bilingual, senior care, government, and students on field trips, and more. I focus heavily on inclusive programming with a love for increasing accessibility to outdoor learning.”

When asked about her favorite part of the program, Sarah said it was the opportunity to network. “I enjoyed the networking. I was able to meet amazing people, found a part-time job and expanded my knowledge of the state we are in.” She also said that the instructional workshops were particularly helpful. “The depth we went into during the instructional workshops were helpful for answering some of the random, out of left field questions kids love to ask.” 

For her community partnership program, Sarah worked with several partners including Activate Good and Kids Marble Museum to provide a service-learning project focused on native pollinator plants. The event was held at Marbles Kids Museum. The participants learned about the importance of native flowers for pollinators, and they created hundreds of native wildflower seed bombs that were dispersed at different parks in Wake County. 

Sarah says the program changed the way she approaches education. “It opened my eyes to the “Universal Design in Learning” way of creating programs to help streamline how I can create inclusive programming. I appreciated the details that went into that course.”

As far as how see views environmental issues, Sarah said the program provided a lot of content that she could use when teaching. “I have a wider understanding of the endangered species of our area, as well as the river basins, which is something I never found interesting until I took a workshop about it and gained a new appreciation for the topics.”