By Noel Case

| Special to The Tribune

Sarah Young has encouraged eighth-graders to follow their dreams for the past six years. Now, the 30-year-old teacher at Salt Lake City’s Rowland Hall is going after her own.

Young is the first educator in Utah to receive the Albert Einstein Distinguished Fellowship, which gives teachers the opportunity to spend a school year in Washington, D.C., serving in a federal agency or on Capitol Hill.

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

	Join the Discussion
	Post a Comment

Julie Barrett, the assistant head of school for Rowland Hall, said it’s not just a great opportunity for Young, but for Rowland Hall as well.

"This opportunity allows Sarah to make connections with other outstanding science teachers across the country and to bring exciting new methods and projects, directly related to science, into our curriculum," Barrett said.

It isn’t the first time Young has applied for the fellowship. She tried in 2010, but wasn’t selected. Consequently, she kept her expectations in check when she applied again. Young ultimately was named as a semifinalist and flown to D.C. in March to interview with 40 candidates for 20 spots.

"I remember thinking how amazing all the other educators were," Young said. "I was absolutely shocked when I received a phone call a month later saying I had been selected to be a fellow at the National Science Foundation, especially knowing the caliber of candidates and that I was such a young educator."

Young said her experience with the National Science Foundation — which will last until July — has been life-changing. She spoke of meeting with elected officials such as U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson and of giving a voice to teachers, not just in Utah, but throughout the nation. In her estimation, it has been an incredible honor.

It is amazing, Young noted, to talk with lawmakers about the importance of so-called STEM education — and acronym referring to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — and have them write down what she says. Equally surreal is the experience of receiving emails from elected officials about an upcoming bill and having the opportunity to provide input from the perspective of a teacher.

"I’m grateful to be able to give a voice to teachers because I think so many times in education the words teachers and students get left out of the conversation," Young said. "It’s an incredible honor to stand on Capitol Hill and say, ‘I’m a teacher from Utah and this is what I think.’"

As significant as her experience in our nation’s capital has been, she misses mixing with her students. She can’t wait to get back to it at the beginning of the next school year. She realized how much she missed her students when she returned to Salt Lake City just after Thanksgiving to participate in the NASA Teaching From Space project.

Rowland Hall students joined with students from other schools to create micro-gravity experiments for NASA, based on experiments conducted by students and advisers.

Young and other Einstein fellows in D.C. will select the best design to take with them on a reduced-gravity flight on behalf of the students in early February. The teachers will board a Boeing 727 flight, specifically designed to simulate a low-gravity environment.

After the flight, all the students will then analyze the data and submit a recommendation to NASA and other space-related industry based on the implications of the flight’s findings.

One of the students Young worked on the NASA project with was Meg Lemons. The experiments Lemons worked on resulted in intriguing outcomes — such as expanding gummy bears to five times their original size by diffusing them across various membranes.

"I loved working with Sarah," Lemons said. "I honestly don’t think I would be as excited as I am today about science if Sarah wasn’t my role model."

Young said there is nothing like the energy created from working with kids. The knowledge she is gaining in Washington D.C., she feels, will greatly enhance what she is able to share with her students when she returns to Rowland Hall next school year.

Young teaches three classes at Rowland Hall — one with all girls, one with all boys and another that mixes the two. She hopes to encourage more of her students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics because she feels there will be a surplus of jobs in the years to come.