Editor’s Note: This is the first of two stories about an Allegheny graduate who brings her global environmental travel experience to students in the Baltimore City School District.
When Sabina Sully graduated from Allegheny College in 2005, she decided to put her liberal arts education to use teaching young students about the global impact they can have on preserving and protecting the planet.
Most recently, Sully journeyed to the rugged Patagonia frontier in South America for 10 days in the autumn of 2024 as part of the National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship program. She did so as a guest of the National Geographic Society and Lindblad Expeditions onboard the research vessel, Explorer.
“The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship is such a special, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience some of Earth’s most extraordinary places,” says Sully. “I have always been passionate about fostering curiosity and global awareness in my students, and National Geographic’s Explorer mind-set provides a powerful framework to do just that. The idea of being part of a fellowship focused on connecting teachers and helping them develop their voices as storytellers was incredibly exciting.”
The Patagonia trip was not Sully’s first educational foray overseas. She also received a 2018–19 Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program fellowship that took her to Morocco. “It is wild, because though the two experiences were only six years apart, they are separated by the pandemic, and so much changed in terms of how we connect with others through that time,” she says. “While a lot of virtual platforms were just gaining momentum in 2019, coming into my Grosvenor experience we were already really prepared to be able to get students involved with my Patagonia experience through digital platforms.”
Sully, who was raised in Pittsburgh, was a women’s studies major and history minor at Allegheny. “My classroom work now reflects many of the values I encountered during my undergraduate years as a women’s studies major: Amplifying voices that have been historically marginalized, promoting community-based sustainability, and developing curriculum that honors diverse experiences and encourages critical analysis of history through the lens of social and environmental justice,” she says.
Sully went on to earn her Master of Arts in Teaching from Towson University. Since then she has been teaching within the Baltimore City School System, including the past 14 years at Patterson Park Public Charter School.
She continues to earn accolades in the teaching profession. In 2024, Sully was named one of the Outstanding STEM Educators of the Year in Maryland “That was such a surprise! I was really honored to be recognized by the Maryland Science Center for our work in making sure that students have access to impactful, hand-on opportunities to engage in science.”
