fbpx

|

In right place at right time, Bollier earns Space Academy opportunity for Shawnee Mission teacher

Share this story:

Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala. Photo via Space Camp Facebook page.
Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala. Photo via Space Camp Facebook page.

A local legislator’s obsession with punctuality has earned a Shawnee Mission teacher the opportunity to go to space camp.

State Rep. Barbara Bollier was speaking with another attendee at the 21st Annual State Directors conference of Women in Government earlier this month when she checked the time an noticed the next session was about to begin.

“I’ve always been really uncomfortable with being late,” she said. “So I told the person, ‘Let’s go. I have to be in my seat.’”

That timeliness paid off when Bollier’s name was called in the drawing for a door prize: a legislator from Alabama had donated a week-long trip to the Space Academy for Educators.

“It was like the Price is Right — I was jumping up and down,” Bollier said. “Science is a big deal for me, so I loved getting this prize and being able to bring it home.”

The Shawnee Mission School District has put out an call for interested teachers to apply for the opportunity, which will take place during the summer at the Space Camp campus in Huntsville, Ala. Participants take part in space flight simulations and get introduced to made-for-the-classroom modules on space and exploration.

Bollier has worked with the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation to arrange for the selected educator’s transportation costs to be paid. Applications much be received by Feb. 6, and the district will name the winner Feb. 18.

“It’s always nice to be able to provide this kind of professional development option for teachers, especially the way education funding has been,” Bollier said.

Bollier, Reps. Stephanie Clayton and Melissa Rooker and Sen. Kay Wolf are all members of Women in Government.

About the author

Jay Senter
Jay Senter

Jay Senter is the founder and publisher of the Post.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he worked as a reporter and editor at The Badger Herald.

He went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, where he earned the Calder Pickett Award. While he was in graduate school, he also worked as a reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World.

LATEST HEADLINES