April 2023 Fellows Recap

Another month of the school year has flown by! We are excited to bring you the latest updates from the Utah Teacher Fellows from the month of April. There are so many exciting things happen in the Fellows personal & professional life and we love celebrating their successes with the wider Utah education community.

4/11 - Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) hosted a national conversation, Imagining More: A Summit on Modernizing Our Education System, to engage in discussions on how our nation’s schools can truly change from a systemic perspective. One of our Fellows, John Arthur, NBCT was one of the featured speakers along with our fearless leader, Utah State Superintendent Sydnee Dickson .

4/11 - Congrats to Stephan Seabury for being selected as one of only 50 awardees for the 2023 James Madison Fellowship. The fellowships are intended exclusively for graduate study leading to a master’s degree. James Madison Fellows may attend any accredited institution of higher education in the United States. This is such an exciting opportunity, Stephan, congrats!

4/17 - Congrats to Fellow Natalie Kay Johnson for her recent admission to the Indiana University School of Education's Doctor of Education program. She is planning on continuing her study of social justice issues using Art Education.

4/19 - We got to see some familiar faces this month at our monthly webinar! It is always a good night to see every one and catch up. One of the best things about the Utah Teacher Fellows is the community that develops over the course of the two year program. The monthly webinars keeps those meaningful connections alive in between our face-to-face sessions.

This cohort is wrapping up their experience with the Fellows by working on a project with ULEAD , finding bright spots in Utah education to spotlight. Several Fellows contributed to the ULEAD steering committee in identifying focus priorities. The whole cohort was then able to choose different priorities that they were interested in researching and finding schools and districts to spotlight as examples of effective, actionable, and dynamic education in Utah. The ultimate goal is to help other schools in Utah find the resources that they need to replicate those successes for their own communities.

4/19 - Kerianne Carter was featured in the most recent episode of the Utah Teacher Fellow podcast. "The purpose of the Utah Teacher Fellows Podcast is to share teachers stories, share what makes teaching great, why teaching is great, and how teaching is great." Kerianne currently serves fellow teachers as an Executive Board Member for the Davis Education Association, and assists students as a Jr. Hope Squad advisor for her school.?

Listen to Kerianne talk about how her passion in education policy motivates her to pursue administrative roles. Kerianne recently found out that she got an elementary assistant principal internship position next year. Congrats to Kerianne for this exciting new opportunity!

4/20 - Once a quarter (ish), Fellow alumna Machelle Rogers (M.Ed, Ed.D) organizes a reunion dinner for any of the cohort Fellows to join in. This month, we got to meet together over dinner and reconnect. It is a wonderful evening and so fun to chat with Fellows from all over the state and from different cohorts. Taunya James, M.Ed. drove all the way down from Weber county to join us this time! We look forward eagerly to the next get-together in October.

In conclusion, it has been another productive month for our cohort of Fellows. From conferences, to podcasts, to reunions from Fellows old and new, we celebrate all the wonderful work that is being done every day in classrooms throughout the state. Thank you for being a part of our community of learners. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of our students and inspire others to be MOVERS for Utah education.

See you in May for our next spotlight.