I was on my way home from Perfect North Slopes. I usually don’t check my phone messages, as I’d just rather return the call when I see a number listed as missed. But a missed call from Washington, D.C. had me a bit curious, so I pressed the voicemail box key. For several moments I didn’t know exactly what I was listening to-I was stuck in traffic so all I could think about was getting home. This guy name Scott Kisch was talking. He said he was from National Geographic. He continued, “..one of 35 teachers selected …congratulations Dawnetta.” He said a slew of other things, but I didn't really catch any of it. I stared at my phone for several seconds. Hmmm..National Geograhic. Wait? I began slowly to connect the dots, but it still didn’t fully register. After several long seconds I asked self, was this the call I’d been waiting on? That application I submitted in December?
....
My memory raced back to that day I was sitting on my sofa watching something on a nature channel about puffins, yes, a bird! Ironically I was intrigued, as I have always been about things in nature, so I began doing some online research about this species and clicked on some random organization's page. I scrolled down and noticed a link about the National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. Hmmm what's this about? Something internal told me to just see...just explore. So I did, I clicked on the link, and it took me to the application page where I was able to read up on this awesome opportunity for K-12 educators. Before this day, I didn't even know an opportunity of its kind existed. It was focused on teachers who demonstrated excellence in the area of incorporating geographic education into their curriculum. My response to the inquiry was quite simple, "hmmm....the Haiti exhibit I organized, and years of developing curriculum for camping trips and our marine biology studies ...oh...I do those things all the time." So I applied, and to think, it all started with the puffin.
.....
As I returned to the cellular device resting in the palm of my hand, I couldn't take my mind off that moment, or my eyes off the glaring screen. No way…No No No!!! It can’t be true. Wooooowwww! Everything sinks in, and I mean everything. I nervously press the number four again on my screen to repeat the message. Scott’s voice plays again, “National Geographic, you were selected as one of 35 educators from across the United States and Canada, congratulations Dawnetta, call Nina to confirm.” It was indeed, THE CALL.
When I look back I wonder how I was able to function in that moment, I was thirty five minutes outside of the city limits with not a person to tell in sight. I was in total shock, National Geographic had picked me. ME!!! It’s not that I don’t think I am deserving, but out of 2700 applications, mine rose to the top. I still feel incredibly humbled by the honor. I started to scream right there in my car on the back roads of Indiana. I was selected to go on an expedition. Not just any expedition, but one with a team of National Geographic experts. For an adventurous gal like me, my lemonade moment could not have been any more sweet. Screaming was all I could do in the moment...not jump up and down, run in a circle, or even hug the nearest human spirit, but scream...and of course motion and sign wildly with my hands to the truck drivers heading westbound, “they picked me…ME!”
The first person I called was my dear friend and colleague Jason Banks. We've been close pals since we started the famous Cocomo Divers community together in the basement of Dater Montessori over nine years ago. He’s believed in me since the start, especially when everyone thought my ideas were crazy. He knew they were going to work, even if I didn’t have the plan all mapped out just yet. One day he told me I was going to change the world, one child at time.
Sadly, he didn’t answer his phone, in fact no one answered their phone that Saturday evening. It was somewhat a bitter sweet moment in time. Nothing in the world could hide a smile a big as mine. I waited for the return calls and there were many of them, including the one from my dear friend. Each time I shared the fantastic news. “National Geographic selected me to go on a once in a life time expedition to the British & Irish Isles.” To this day, I am still reveling in the joy I felt from that call on a blistering cold February day.
....
My memory raced back to that day I was sitting on my sofa watching something on a nature channel about puffins, yes, a bird! Ironically I was intrigued, as I have always been about things in nature, so I began doing some online research about this species and clicked on some random organization's page. I scrolled down and noticed a link about the National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. Hmmm what's this about? Something internal told me to just see...just explore. So I did, I clicked on the link, and it took me to the application page where I was able to read up on this awesome opportunity for K-12 educators. Before this day, I didn't even know an opportunity of its kind existed. It was focused on teachers who demonstrated excellence in the area of incorporating geographic education into their curriculum. My response to the inquiry was quite simple, "hmmm....the Haiti exhibit I organized, and years of developing curriculum for camping trips and our marine biology studies ...oh...I do those things all the time." So I applied, and to think, it all started with the puffin.
.....
As I returned to the cellular device resting in the palm of my hand, I couldn't take my mind off that moment, or my eyes off the glaring screen. No way…No No No!!! It can’t be true. Wooooowwww! Everything sinks in, and I mean everything. I nervously press the number four again on my screen to repeat the message. Scott’s voice plays again, “National Geographic, you were selected as one of 35 educators from across the United States and Canada, congratulations Dawnetta, call Nina to confirm.” It was indeed, THE CALL.
When I look back I wonder how I was able to function in that moment, I was thirty five minutes outside of the city limits with not a person to tell in sight. I was in total shock, National Geographic had picked me. ME!!! It’s not that I don’t think I am deserving, but out of 2700 applications, mine rose to the top. I still feel incredibly humbled by the honor. I started to scream right there in my car on the back roads of Indiana. I was selected to go on an expedition. Not just any expedition, but one with a team of National Geographic experts. For an adventurous gal like me, my lemonade moment could not have been any more sweet. Screaming was all I could do in the moment...not jump up and down, run in a circle, or even hug the nearest human spirit, but scream...and of course motion and sign wildly with my hands to the truck drivers heading westbound, “they picked me…ME!”
The first person I called was my dear friend and colleague Jason Banks. We've been close pals since we started the famous Cocomo Divers community together in the basement of Dater Montessori over nine years ago. He’s believed in me since the start, especially when everyone thought my ideas were crazy. He knew they were going to work, even if I didn’t have the plan all mapped out just yet. One day he told me I was going to change the world, one child at time.
Sadly, he didn’t answer his phone, in fact no one answered their phone that Saturday evening. It was somewhat a bitter sweet moment in time. Nothing in the world could hide a smile a big as mine. I waited for the return calls and there were many of them, including the one from my dear friend. Each time I shared the fantastic news. “National Geographic selected me to go on a once in a life time expedition to the British & Irish Isles.” To this day, I am still reveling in the joy I felt from that call on a blistering cold February day.
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