BES Student Gives Back To The Community While Interning At St. Louis Zoo
What do you do if you are a nursing major and you suddenly realize that you get nauseous when you see blood? You consider changing your major. This is how the Bachelor of Education Studies student Sierra McClellon discovered her passion for informal education.
After switching her major to teaching while at St. Louis Community College – Forest Park, Sierra transferred to the University of Missouri – St. Louis to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education with an emphasis in English. Her education journey did not finish there though. While she was taking education classes at UMSL, Sierra realized that she wanted to be more flexible when it comes to the curriculum. “When you work in a traditional classroom setting your curriculum is always dictated by the school or the state,” says McClellon. “But I came to realize that I don’t want to be told what to teach my learners.” After talking to her academic advisor, Sierra switched to BES.
The Bachelor of Educational Studies Program (BES) is a program specifically designed for students excited about education, but looking for challenges outside the traditional classroom setting. Depending on the sphere of interest, students choose an emphasis area that is in line with their career aspirations. Students choose from five tracks: Early Childhood, Exercise Science and Wellness, Park and Museum Programs, Youth and Adult Development, and Social Entrepreneurship.
Despite having worked with small kids at Creve Coeur’s KinderCare for the last 3 years, Sierra chose Youth and Adult Development as her career track to equip her to work with youth programs upon graduation. “I want to be someone who gives back to the community; be a resource to kids that aren’t able to get those general resources due to either location, or other factors,” continues McClellon. Sierra is graduating in May 2019 and is already considering a master’s degree in either Public Policy Administration or Education Administration as the next step in achieving her career goals.
McClellon gave back to the St. Louis community through her internship at the St. Louis Zoo last fall. When she was asked to revise their scavenger hunt program, Sierra applied the Montessori approach to create a child-friendly scientific experiment to help kids develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills in a game setting. The Zoo administration loved the idea so much that the program is going to be launched in April 2019. Well done, Sierra!
Trackback from your site.