Atkinson Scholar update

Megan Hamilton Clifford pursuing career

Megan Hamilton Clifford

Megan Hamilton Clifford realized this year that she was right when she made the decision to become a teacher. She can now add teaching to her passions, which include the environment and nature.

“I loved waking up in the morning and going to work,” says Clifford, 26, last year’s winner of the Joseph W. Atkinson Scholarship for Excellence in Teacher Education.

“I really enjoyed being there and when I was there I was 100 per cent present. I loved my students. They were fantastic, interesting and dynamic. I realized I truly loved my job.”

Clifford worked as a literacy tutor with the Limestone DSB in Kingston from April 2008, after graduating with a Bachelor of Education from Lakehead University, until the end of the school year.

She worked at Queen Elizabeth Collegiate and Vocational Institute, a high school located in an area that faces challenges with low literacy rates. She worked with Grades 9 and 10 students, including eight “youth-at-risk” girls from a specialized program called Crossroads. She summed it up as an amazing opportunity.

“I found QE to be a very inspirational school,” she says. “Rather than trying to fit the students into the system, the administration fits the system to the needs of the students. It was a wonderful chance to see many specialized programs for young mothers, students with behavioural problems and students that in general need a little extra help and attention.

“The high school provides a ton of hands-on classes and three free daycares so that mothers can keep going to school after they have children,” Clifford says. “Being a teen mother is so hard and this way their kids are right at the school.”

During the summer, Clifford worked another session with a Limestone board-funded program called Outreach. The Outreach program is offered to students entering Grades 9 and 10. Students learn environmental camping practices for one week and then spend nine days in Algonquin Park on a portage-intensive canoe trip. She led seven students on the trip.

“It was beautiful and I had a really great group,” Clifford says. “They were super enthusiastic and fun. It was a wonderful trip.”

The summer also provided Clifford with the opportunity to spend time with her family in Kingston, to connect with nature in the garden and to camp in the woods. She says the time with family was precious as she knew she’d soon be living three hours from Kingston, across the border in Ithaca, NY, where she moved in late August with her partner, Ben Dalziel, who is working on his PhD.

Clifford is pursuing several options as she continues her career stateside for now. She plans to volunteer and eventually to supply teach at a local alternative high school as she works toward getting her New York State teaching licence. She also intends to design outdoor education courses for high school students. The courses will focus on science and environmental sustainability, and possibly involve a social science component.

Clifford’s work visa is currently in the clearance process. Once she receives permission to work, she can supply teach for 40 days per school year without a New York teaching licence. Until then, she’ll focus on volunteering and creating the courses.

Clifford wishes to once again express her gratitude at being selected as an Atkinson award winner. She says she was very honoured to be chosen and the scholarship stands out as a highlight of the past year.