Educator Spotlight: Mawadda Almasri

Mawadda Almasri, a nonformal educator in Mecklenburg County, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification and began a new career as an education specialist at the Carolina Raptor Center. In this new role, she will be designing and delivering bird programs, taking care of and training the raptors, and helping with interns and volunteers. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, exploring hiking trails, birding, playing chess and reading.

When asked about her favorite part of earning her certification, Mawadda said it was the teaching component. “I completed most of my teaching during my time as an educator at Agape Center for Environmental Education which is an incredible place to work! I loved being outdoors and teaching the students about the wonders of our natural world. Seeing them get excited about animals, asking thoughtful questions, and having a great time! The teaching hours helped me put what I learned from the environmental education workshops and courses into practice and allowed me to gain teaching experience to make me a more confident educator. With the guidance from the other educators at Agape, I was able to learn how to present the programs, manage the students and keep them engaged and find my own personal teaching style.”

Mawadda says the course she took with the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI) was the experience that stood out to her as the most impactful.  The course, Framing the Conversation, is an introductory course on shifting climate conversations and messaging to be more positive, civic-minded, and solutions focused. I took the course back in 2021 when I was an AmeriCorps member at the North Carolina Zoo and just starting my certification. It was a tool that the zoo wanted me to have in order to help them build their climate change programming. I enjoyed participating in the course, and by the end of it, I had acquired helpful tools and resources that assisted me in creating an effective climate change program. Since then, I've been an active NNOCCI member, and I've also worked as a teacher assistant for those same courses. I plan to continue being involved in the NNOCCI community, participating in the climate sector, and advocating for climate action.”

When asked if the certification program led to any changes in her approach to teaching, she said it helped shape her teaching. “I started the certification during my AmeriCorps service, which was my first job out of college, so I didn't have a personal teaching style or any experience teaching at that time. Participating in the certification allowed me to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to become a great environmental educator. The Methods of Teaching Environmental Education was a great workshop that taught me how to address an audience outdoors and to ensure they can hear and see me well, are comfortable during the program and are engaged with the material. Many of the workshops I participated in during the four years added on to these teaching tools, such as the Certified Interpretive Guide Training. That training was especially helpful in teaching me how to create an engaging and informative program. These workshops and training have given me the confidence to develop programs that are intriguing, age-appropriate, relevant and that inspire the audience to help with conservation efforts.”

Mawadda says the program changed the way she thinks about environmental issues giving her a big picture of how human development has impacted the planet. “The workshops and courses have made me realize how interconnected our ecosystems are and how sensitive they are to changes in the environment, and therefore, how important it is to protect and preserve all ecosystems and all wildlife. And while this newfound awareness of the state of our planet does make me sad and upset at times, when I see and talk to the people working in these different fields I feel hopeful again. Their contagious passion inspires me to continue working in environmental education and be an advocate for change. There are so many environmental issues but there are also so many of us working on them. With our collective effort, we can make a difference for our planet, ourselves, and future generations.”