ST. LOUIS — Third grade teacher Jean Turney has worked in multiple continents throughout her education and community development career. In just a few short months, she will add another continent to that list. Jean’s icy blue eyes will be gazing at something she has dreamed of seeing – the immense icy glaciers of Antarctica towering around her.
Like anyone, Jean’s experiences have shaped her into who she is today.
Although she has seen an ample amount and met so many, Jean has sustained the same child-like curiosity and wonder that she’s had since her first adventure.
“I think there is so much more to explore,” said Jean. “My favorite place is the next one I am going to.”
That curiosity is now steering her to the ends of the Earth. Jean will travel to Antarctica on an expedition this December as part of the Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Program.
Made possible by Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic Society, 45 teachers who show utmost commitment to geographic education will venture across the globe for the program’s thirteenth occurrence.
“We are immensely proud to support Grosvenor Teacher Fellows - extraordinary individuals who share out passion and commitment to inspiring the next generation of planetary stewards,” said Vicki Phillips, National Geographic Society Executive Vice President and Chief Education Officer, in an online press release.
The 2019 fellows embark on trips to the High Arctic, Alaska, Central America, Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands. Jean will experience landscapes, cultures and wildlife exclusive to Antarctica.
“At the society, we’re dedicated to providing educators with unparalleled resources and transformative experiences, so they can advance students’ understanding of the world and empower them to generate solutions for a more sustainable future,” said Phillips.
The program goal is to enhance the fellows’ geographic knowledge through hands-on, field-based experience. The fellows are expected to bring back that knowledge and experience and integrate it into their classrooms, communities and professional networks.
The fellowship’s name pays tribute to Gilbert M. Grosvenor, chairman emeritus of the National Geographic Society. The program is in honor of his work promoting geography education throughout the United States and Canada and supporting pre-K-12 teachers for many decades.
The Society by Sven-Olof Lindblad and Lindblad Expeditions donated the expeditions in 2006 to enhance the program in honor of Grosvenor’s 75th birthday.
“These exemplary educators are vital to educating and inspiring the future stewards of our planet,” said CEO and President of Lindblad Expeditions Sven Lindblad in an online press release. “Our mission remains to provide them impactful experiences in the world’s remote places to stimulate their knowledge and passion to help shape their students.”
The 2019 fellowship is the largest in program history and includes formal and informal educators from multiple grade levels and subject areas. The group integrates educators from across the United States, Canada and in the U.S. Department of Defense Activity School in Japan.
To even start an application for the highly competitive program, individuals must complete a National Geographic Educator Certification. The certification is a free professional development program that offers access to exclusive National Geographic resources, programs and opportunities.
Applicants were told they would be getting a phone call if selected and an email if not.
Jean was driving from work to the gym when she had a voicemail from a representative asking if she could call back. Shocked and exhilarated, Jean called back and when asked how she was that day, she said “I think I’m going to be really good.”
The news surprised Jean but it didn’t surprise her colleagues.
“She embodies what National Geographic stands for and educates her students to take care of each other, our community and the earth as a whole,” said Jean’s teaching assistant and AmeriCorps member Kara Urbanek. “She truly is a steward of the earth.”
After selection, Jean underwent training in Washington, D.C. to learn a multitude of skills, including photography, video editing, outreach planning and public speaking. This skill set develops teaching abilities by enhancing storytelling skills and the ability to inspire students and other teachers.
Lindblad-National Geographic expedition experts will accompany the fellows on their expeditions, which includes National Geographic photographers and undersea specialists.
This most recent honor is not Jean’s first. Multiple associations have recognized her significant work.
Outside of many accomplishments and awards for educational programs and grant writing, she received the Heart for Art Award in 2015 by Missouri Art educators, the Christa McAuliffe ‘Read for the Stars’ award from the National Social Studies Association in 2008, and the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education in 2010 from the Missouri Humanities Council.
Although Jean’s list of awards and recognition is a lengthy one, being chosen for the fellowship program is one of her most prideful accomplishments in her teaching career.
“Being recognized by those two organizations that are really committed to conservation and planetary stewardship and to be considered working on that level was really humbling,” said Jean.
What makes Jean’s journey even more remarkable is that she never planned on becoming a teacher.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Communication/Political Science from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri and a Master’s degrees in Adult Community Development from Regis University in Denver, Jean worked in youth development.
Jean drew in young peoples’ interest in activism through leadership development and team building programs while working in small groups in Washington, D.C. Two years later, she wanted to travel and gain experience internationally.
Jean’s first position abroad was in small villages in Belize. She worked as a Jesuit volunteer with women groups to broaden community development. She then changed roles and headed to a town on the Guatemalan border and worked with youth development in a high school.
Shortly after falling into a teaching role, she fell in love with the job and what it entailed.
“That was really my introduction to teaching,” said Jean. “To learn how to teach there is great because the kids are so thankful to be in school.”
Jean incorporated activity-based projects and journals into her curriculum. After having a positive response from students, Jean opened her mind to the possibility of a teaching career.
Jean traveled and worked in multiple refugee camps in El Salvador after working in Belize for three years. She then headed back to the U.S.
After moving home to St. Louis for two years, Jean was offered a position as a seventh-grade teacher in West Virginia, where she developed an outreach curriculum that focused on global awareness and understanding. Shortly after, she switched back to community development and took a position in a middle school and high school to work with students on leadership and life skills.
Jean went on to be an assistant principal, where she implemented a disciplinary approach of conflict resolution. For Jean, building a model for troubled kids to find the root of their issue and solve it themselves was her ideal job and developed her both personally and professionally.
After seven years in West Virginia, Jean moved back home to St. Louis to be a learning consultant at a local elementary school. Using her own programs, she trained teachers to work with students with disabilities and personal issues. Jean chose to return to teaching when the school lost funding for her placement.
Jean found a position as a fourth-grade teacher.
“Having those kids all day, building communities, teaching based on projects and connecting them to community are things that are relevant,” said Jean. Those aspects make Jean’s job meaningful to her.
While teaching, Jean took a course with Forest Park about utilizing the park as an outdoor classroom. It helped show her how much more teachers could do for their students.
Jean started working in the summer for Forest Park Forever and began writing grants. After 13 years, she took a full-time position to develop educational programs.
Jean still uses the connections she made with community resources at Forest Park Forever in her classroom today.
After five years at Forest Park Forever, personal concerns are part of what led Jean back to the classroom.
“Within the last couple years, I was growing more and more concerned with the state of our country and the things that are happening,” said Jean. “Our populations that are most vulnerable seem to be the ones hit the hardest.”
Jean was working an experiential educators exchange event at the Biome School when she saw a staff member interact with a student having a rough day.
The staff member’s compassion and patience to work through the problem with the child impressed Jean. It resulted in her looking for open positions at the school and shortly after applying, joining the teaching staff.
The Biome isn’t your typical school and Jean isn’t your typical teacher.
The Biome is a STEAM school and refers to itself as an academic ecosystem. The ecosystem of relationships and resources at the school all serve a purpose to the students.
Even the name has a connection to nature.
The Biome crafted its name to echo the cooperation and symbiotic support that is evident in Earth’s natural ecosystems.
Jean’s teaching also draws tangents to the wild.
Jean highlights the importance of maintaining the mindset of an explorer to her students and how it is essential to learning.
“It is that curiosity, it is that ability to take risks, it is collaborating, it is being creative,” said Jean. “Kids keep that fresh within you.”
Aligning with the explorer mindset Jean focuses on, she is passionate about connecting kids with the natural world.
“I think that we learn a lot from nature,” said Jean. “I think it is having that opportunity to explore and to get dirty and be a part of the wild spaces is important for everybody but for really our kids growing up.”
Jean is nothing short of creative when it comes to integrating multiple subjects into one project. With a grant she earned in 2006 from National Geographic, her fourth graders ventured to Forest Park once a week to study trees.
The project included elements of geography, science, literature, history and art. “I like mixing them all together,” said Jean. “I like that they don’t know what skill they are working on.”
Each student adopted a tree in the park and visited it every week. They used GIS technology to map the trees, wrote original stories and researched the history and biology of the trees.
“We looked at it as a scientist, we looked at is as a poet, we looked at it through storytelling and we looked at is as historical,” said Jean.
The class even spoke with people from the Missouri Department of Conservation and the St. Louis Art Museum to see how trees have inspired artwork and literature for centuries.
Some of the students’ stories were rooted in the history of St. Louis. One student discovered that their tree would have been just a sapling when Lewis and Clark trekked through and used that historical moment to tell the tree’s life story.
To Jean, zooming in on one tree reveals all the aspects that make each organism so exceptional. The creativity and integration of nature in the project are reasons why Jean received the grant.
“National Geographic is a lot about place and helping kids to grow in their love and understanding of a place,” said Jean. “It was that. It was very rooted in a place and going back many, many times.”
Along with helping students connect their environment to their community, Jean is passionate about social justice issues and racial representation.
Jean says she has seen racial inequity in many school systems and wants all students to have equal access to resources. She hopes to tie racial equity and student voice into the impact the expedition will have on her class. Jean plans to develop a lens of explorers of color and highlight those stories to her classes in the years following her trip.
Students having access to books, experiences and meetings with people of color that are heroes, scientists and inventors is important to Jean because she wants to show her class successful individuals in society that represent them.
Throughout her first week of training for the expedition, Jean met teachers from across the country that care about these same issues.
“It just really leaves you hopeful,” said Jean. “There is a lot of people out there doing really amazing things to connect kids and communities and work to change.”
While Jean’s fellows have already influenced her, Jean has been an inspiration to coworkers and students for years.
“Jean has encouraged me to pursue education as a career,” said Kara Urbanek. “Working with her, I can see the difference she’s making in the students’ lives and has inspired me to hopefully do the same.”
Jean’s influence goes far beyond the classroom. Her students have taken initiative and impacted their local community.
The most recent government shutdown affected many of the families whose children attend the Biome. From food to electricity bills, the school received more requests than usual for additional support. Jean brought the issue up to her class and was amazed with the response.
“We talked about how Martin Luther King didn’t just do good things, he organized,” said Jean. “They were beautiful at being able to see that and they were empowered.”
Jean’s students wrote letters to neighboring businesses and shops asking for help. They made and sent boxes to each location that agreed to participate and developed their own food bank.
“They saw a need in their community, they found a way to organize and mobilize and collect,” said Jean. “There was this real sense of pride that we did this and it was so tangible and they were so committed. They still are very passionate about what they did.”
Building community in the classroom and making students feel like a part of something bigger than themselves is Jean’s favorite part of teaching.
She hopes that students take these lessons much further than the walls of the Biome school.
“I hope that they feel valued, that what they did mattered,” said Jean. “They are an important part of a bigger picture and the choices they make are going to make a difference.”
From her third graders to fellow teachers to National Geographic and Lindblad, it is safe to say that Jean is making a difference simply by being herself.
