Educator Spotlight: Sarah Gleason

Sarah Gleason, an environmental educator and systems specialist at The NC Arboretum, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification.

In her role at the arboretum, Sarah facilitates environmental education programs for students ages 2 - 14 on topics such as wildlife, stream ecology, soil, weather and more. “When I am not facilitating programs, I am behind the computer helping participants register for programs, promoting our programs through website updates and flyers, or developing and adapting curriculum.  Outside of work my favorite thing to do is be outdoors. I love gardening, hiking, and looking for animals big and small!”

Sarah says she thinks the program will have a huge impact on wherever she takes her career next. “The program has opened my eyes to the vastness of the environmental education field, helped me make connections across the state and strengthened my skillset.” She also says this was her favorite part of earning her certification. “My favorite part of this certification is how it embedded me into the world of environmental education in Western North Carolina in a way that I don't think I could have done on my own. Despite working in the field and going to conferences with my job, there is a level of knowledge and basic understanding of other environmental education organizations across the state that I wouldn't have had. I feel as though completing this certification has given me a greater understanding of how environmental education works statewide and made me feel more a part of the larger goal.”

When asked which certification experience stood out to her, Sarah says it was the Project Learning Tree workshop she took at the Western NC Nature Center. “I absolutely loved how hands on the workshop was. Rather than talking about all of the activities, we did as many as we could fit into the class time and authentically did them. It lead to more in-depth debriefs about why the original format works, doesn't work, how we could alter it. I walked away with a greater understanding of how to approach a lesson plan, analyze it and adapt it to my audience.”

For her community partnership program, Sarah took over The North Carolina Arboretum's partnership with Kids in Parks to get the Track Trail program running again. “I ensured that information was accurate, Kids in Parks was involved in Arboretum events and materials were accessible to visitors of The Arboretum. This provided a consistent and free invitation for kids and families to interact with nature in an educational way.”

Sarah says the program changed her approach to teaching. “I now approach teaching with the knowledge that every single student and teacher is coming with a different background, set of skills and barriers to learning. When I started adapting programing to meet more learning styles, I noticed how effective my teaching was and noticed a greater participation level across students. I am continuously looking for ways to make my teaching styles more approachable and accessible. I hope to keep learning and changing the way I teach to make environmental education truly for everyone.”

Sarah says her views on environmental issues has changed. “I find myself thinking a lot more about funding. I always recognized that money played a role in environmental issues and the approach to fix them, but I don't think I understood how impactful funding was on a micro scale. Every environmental education organization is dealing with funding challenges, and it feels that we are being fought against, while being told that the work we are doing is "so needed and important." It is a huge challenge and a very frustrating part of environmental education and environmental issues as a whole.”