MUKILTEO — A 2007 graduate of Kamiak High School, Allison Stafford is set to graduate from Stanford University this weekend with a degree in earth sciences. Stafford, 22, then returns to Stanford in a week to begin the university’s intensive one-year teacher education program to earn a master’s degree and a teaching certificate.
To help make that happen, the New Jersey-based Knowles Science Teaching Foundation recently awarded Stafford a $150,000 fellowship. Stafford is one of only 36 people nationwide to receive the grant, which encourages top students to pursue careers in science education.
Stafford would like to return to Snohomish County to teach high school physics.
“I started off on a good foot at university in part because of my great science teachers at Kamiak,” Stafford said. “I was on an environmental science path, but I realized I can do a lot more good if I can help people overcome the seemingly widespread fear of science and better understand issues such as hunger, poverty and climate change.”
She applied for the prestigious science education fellowship and rose to the top during a rigorous process that eliminated hundreds of other applicants from across the country. Recently she met with the other 35 winners of the fellowship.
“Everyone is so excited about teaching,” Stafford said. “We are eager to give back to our communities and share our love of learning.”
A longtime volunteer tutor, Stafford has served as a mentor with the Stanford Chapter of Women and Youth Supporting Each Other, working with seventh and eighth grade girls from a low-income middle school.
During her year of teacher education, she will be working in low-income schools in the south San Francisco Bay area. It will be her first chance to show students the power of knowledge and how science can serve them, Stafford said.
After graduation, Stafford will get a few more years of help to buy classroom supplies and equipment, fund professional development classes and take students on field trips that their schools would not otherwise be able to afford.
The need for math and science teachers is great, said Nicole Gillespie, the foundation’s director of teaching fellowships.
“Allison is countering every negative public perception of teachers, including the naïve cliché of ‘those who can’t, teach,'” Gillespie said. “Nearly half of all teachers leave the field within the first five years, and the most highly qualified are the most likely to leave. (The foundation) is working to understand why this happens and what it takes to reverse the trend, particularly for high school math and science teachers.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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