Ogden • Susan Snyder’s classroom is larger than most. It stretches over 156 acres of grassy fields and forests that run wild with turkeys — and sometimes students.

In a scenic preserve known as the Ogden Nature Center, juxtaposed against the urban landscape of Utah’s seventh-most-populous city, Snyder has distinguished herself as the state’s top environmental educator.

Snyder recently received the Vern A. Fridley Environmental Educator of the Year Award, presented during the annual conference of the Utah Society for Environmental Education. Snyder said she was stunned by the recognition.

"Vern Fridley was the father of the environmental-education movement in Utah and probably one of the foremost naturalists ever," Susan said. "It’s pretty remarkable to share an award that has his name on it."

Susan’s friends and colleagues were less surprised. They considered the tribute well-deserved.

Stefanie Miller, education director at the Ogden Nature Center, said the fact that Susan was honored by her peers is proof that she is highly respected in her profession.

"She is an amazing teacher who makes learning fun for all ages," Miller said. "One of the many great things about Susan is her sense of humor. She brings humor into her lessons and can easily get a group of 4-year-olds or 40-year-olds laughing and learning about nature. Susan receiving this award is a testament to the amazing team of educators we have at the Ogden Nature Center."

Snyder’s life mirrors the concepts she studied at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., where she received a master’s degree in ecological teaching and learning. Her education focused largely on the ecosystem and mankind’s place in the universe. She discovered that when people have a sense of where they belong, they tend to make decisions that are true to who they really are.

A fellow teacher and naturalist at the center, Cheyenne Herland, described Snyder as the most accountable person she’s ever known.

"Susan holds herself to a very high standard of quality for everything she does or is involved in," Herland said. "She is constantly asking herself how she, and we, can improve our programs—many of which she’s developed—and how she can better reach children and adults alike and facilitate people having a deep, personal experience in nature. She’s a wonderful person and naturalist: creative, fun, thoughtful, observant, reflective."

Despite her love for the environment and education, Snyder only recently made a career out of them. She devoted much of her occupational life to journalism, working for 25 years as a reporter and columnist for newspapers in several different states, including the Standard-Examiner in Ogden.

But since changing her career course five years ago — choosing a teaching path instead — Snyder hasn’t looked back.

It’s a move that has seemed perfectly natural. Her older brother welcomed it with complete acceptance, reminding Snyder that she had always been a teacher. Even in her columns, he said, she tried to inform and teach, rather than blat out opinions.

The ecosystem is an integral part of what Snyder, and her cohorts, teach. In a world that seems to continually grasp at lines — lining up at the door after recess, crowding to the front of a line to be the first served — Snyder uses a circle to describe the environment.

"There is no front of the line and no back of the line, there is only everybody in a circle," Snyder said. "If we take someone out, we are missing something in our community, and that matters. When you think about a species disappearing every year on this planet, we may not see the effects right away. But, at some point, there will be a ripple that people will feel."

Snyder keeps a journal of experiences she has had with students of all ages at the center. Some of those stories are touching. Once, Snyder and her husband welcomed a group of developmentally challenged adults to the center for stargazing. When Susan pointed out Orion’s Belt through the telescope, one visitor, who was in his mid-20s, could barely contain his excitement.