BY STEPHANIE ROBBINS BOEDING ’99   |   SUBMITTED PHOTOS

For someone who doesn’t like being cold, visiting Antarctica wouldn’t seem like a dream destination. But for Stacey Snyder ’86, visiting the southernmost continent as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow was the chance of a lifetime, and, surprisingly, warmer than her home in Iowa when she traveled there in November 2019.

The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship is a partnership between National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions that puts 45 teachers on a field-based expedition. The fellowship is a professional development opportunity for pre-K–12 classroom teachers that has a two-year commitment beyond the trip. Snyder, an expanded learning program and gifted-
student resource teacher at Orange and Lowell elementary schools in Waterloo, applied because of the travel and the focus on empowering students to take action to better the world. Though visiting the Galapagos Islands was her top choice (“I love turtles,” she said), being selected to go to Antarctica was a huge thrill because of the continent’s wild and pristine nature—Snyder’s ship didn’t allow plastic containers on board. “In retrospect I am so thankful I went to Antarctica because it’s probably not a place I would go to on my own. Now that I’ve been there, I feel differently.”

To prepare, Snyder did a lot of reading along with her students. “I have always believed that chance will favor your prepared mind,” she said, and she wanted to be ready to spot the continent’s wildlife and know their habits. Since educators in the fellowship are expected to incorporate their learning into their classroom teaching and share their experience in the community, Snyder borrowed 360-degree cameras from Iowa State University’s FLEx program, with hopes of creating a virtual field trip with her students. While the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to finishing that project this spring, Snyder has been able to share the story of her trip with community groups and local media.

Her highlights were seeing some “biggies,” like a huge iceberg that was 80 miles by 25 miles and took the expedition’s boat several hours to pass. On the ice floes behind the iceberg, Snyder got to see emperor penguins floating in the sea, a rare treat because that largest of the penguin species usually is found further south. Overall, Snyder saw four species of penguin on her trip. “I know birders would be jealous to see some of the birds that I saw,” she said, including the wandering albatross, which has the largest wingspan in the world.

Snyder was willing to get cold just once and made it a fun moment for her students. Trip participants were invited to do a “polar plunge” in the Southern Ocean, and while most brought a bathing suit for the jump, Snyder had a different plan. “I decided I was going to get a penguin costume because I love Halloween and I like to dress up, and I’m a storyteller to the kids. So they know that I can be a character,” she said.

But the biggest moment occurred at the end of the group’s multiday excursion, when a blue whale swam near the group’s ship for more than 20 minutes. “That made my life in a sense, because that’s not an animal that’s all that common. Yeah, they’re huge, but they’re in a huge ocean, too. And so as an endangered species, to be able to be near that, see it, and watch it, that was pretty amazing.”

Snyder is one of only two Iowans who have participated in the fellowship, and now her task is to incorporate her experience into her classrooms in Waterloo, where she already has been challenging her students to make earth-friendly changes. Before becoming a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, Snyder was part of the Geo Challenge project, where students find ways to keep plastics from getting into local water bodies. “My students changed Orange Elementary, basically from plastic silverware to metal silverware,” Snyder said. The students won the first-ever Iowa regional in 2019 and traveled to Washington, D.C. Other students of hers have initiated projects to get reusable mugs for teachers and to approach a local store about using cloth bags instead of plastic.

“I get kids to ask serious questions and collect information that would help them answer that, whether that’s evidence or other data, then visualize a way to make sense of that information and create a way to take action,” said Snyder. “The whole idea is to get teachers who are getting their students to think globally minded and get them to be empowered to action.”

 The passion for education has been passed down to Snyder’s children: daughter Megan Newbrough ’19 is a sixth-grade English and language arts teacher in Denver, Iowa, and son Austin Newbrough ’18 teaches health at Mount Pleasant Middle School. Three Wartburg educators in the family has led to many shared experiences. Both mother and son played golf for the Knights, and mother and daughter discovered a chance coincidence when moving Megan into her room her freshman year. “We get on the floor, and she and I had the same freshman first dorm, Vollmer 234. I mean, how does that happen? How many years in between?”

Though buildings, courses, and professors have changed over the years, the college’s traditions and excellent preparation in the education program has created a special bond. “It’s encouraging to have both of them following in your footsteps, in a way,” said Snyder. “I think that teaching is a profession that builds all others.”