Instructor: JANESSA EDWARDS

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JANESSA EDWARDS

Janessa is the Education and Outreach Director for FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake. She comes to FRIENDS after working in educational program development at the Natural History Museum of Utah for 2 years. You will often find her out at Great Salt Lake running the Lakeside Learning Field Trip Program. She holds a B.S degree in Anthropology as well as a B.S in Gender Studies from the University of Utah. Her specialty is Inquiry Based Environmental Education and her passion is connecting people to the natural world around them. In 2017 Janessa was named Educator of the Year by the Utah Society for Environmental Education. When she is not working for FRIENDS, she enjoys hiking with her dog, spending time with friends and family and fine tuning her new birding hobby.


Why did you choose your career path? My career in education chose me! After I graduated from the University of Utah I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so I took a part-time job at the Natural History Museum of Utah. I worked in the public programs department, and one of my facilitators was out sick and we had a junior science academy class scheduled that day. We didn't have anyone else to teach the class so I decided to do it. It was my very first time teaching students and even though it was a bumpy first try, I was hooked! I loved watching kids get excited about something I was teaching them! After that, I kept asking my boss to let me teach more and more.


When you were growing up, what did you want to be? I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast!


If you could join a Youth Education class, which one would it be? I would take the Girls Rock Robotics class because I don't know anything about robotics and I love learning new things. I also think it is really important to get girls excited about science and engineering at an early age. If someone would have told me when I was young that I could be a scientist, it would have opened up a whole new world to me.

JANESSA EDWARDS is currently teaching:

Class Title Semester Date(s) Program

JANESSA EDWARDS has previously taught:

  • Soar the Salty Shores: Birds of Great Salt Lake (Age 8-10)