The National Geographic Society

For years I've wanted to be a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, but I never thought it could happen. They only allow 3000 applicants each year, and odds are low to get it. When I touched down in the US on my way back from my Costa Rica Earthwatch Fellowship in February, I was surprised that my phone lit up with messages. Someone from Lindblad was trying to reach me, to let me know I'd been chosen! (Let's just say it was hard suppressing my screams in a random corner of the Dallas airport...)

Being chosen for the National Geographic/Lindblad Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship is so incredibly exciting. My entire life I've loved National Geographic, and like so many people I know I've always wanted to be a NatGeo photographer. Now I'm going to get the opportunity to travel to the Arctic Svalbard on the National Geographic Explorer ice class expedition ship, and I'll get to work with National Geographic photographers, naturalists, and undersea specialists. Squeeeeee!!


As part of the fellowship, the 35 2016 Grosvenor Teacher Fellows traveled to Washington D.C. for meetings at National Geographic headquarters. I was a bit bummed that I wasn't feeling great - I'd just gotten back from Iceland three days prior, and was jetlagged and getting over a cough... so I didn't really do much sightseeing and didn't hang out in the evenings with the other fellows. Even so, it was a wonderful experience, and humbling to be in a room with some truly amazing educators.

The very table where the National Geographic Society was formed!

National Geographic and Lindblad treated us like VIPs from the moment we arrived. At the opening reception, we got a tour of the National Geographic Society headquarters. We got to see the Executive Boardroom, the Founder's Room, and even met the President of the National Geographic Society, Gary Knell (And we talked UCLA - he's a fellow Bruin!)






The map in the NG Store has pins marking where people are from and where they are going. I got to put in a pin for the Arctic Svalbard...!

One night, I had a wonderful dinner at an Eritrean restaurant with my new friends Karla, Nicholas, Tim, Ellen, Amy, Jeanne, and Louise. The owners were lovely enough to tell us a bit about their story - they escaped the war in the 1990s and the whole family now works at the restaurant.






Meetings included sessions on what to expect, what to wear, how to prepare, and how to use the various technologies available to us - including the Theta 360 camera and Google Cardboard.

My fellow Fellows

The 2016 Grosvenor Teacher Fellows
Photo courtesy Winn Brewer

Grosvenor Teacher Fellows are traveling to Norway, British & Irish Isles, Canadian Maritimes, Iceland, the Galapagos, and Antarctica. I can't wait for my Arctic expedition, and can't wait to hear about the adventures of my fellow Fellows!