Just before the holidays, Ashley Westra and Marsha Zimmerman–both 2009 Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows–were named as Fellows in the National Science Teachers Association’s 2012-13 New Science Teacher Academy.

Ashley, a top 2009 biology grad from the University of Indianapolis (YouTube), is now an eighth-grade science teacher at Goshen Middle School in Goshen, Indiana. Marsha, who had a 20-year career as a research chemist before deciding to teach, is at Fall Creek Academy teaching secondary-level science. She writes, “The students inspire me!”

Marsha and Ashley, both of whom did their master’s work as WW Fellows at the University of Indianapolis, were two of just three Indiana teachers selected from among hundreds of applicants nationally to take part in NSTA’s New Science Teacher Academy. The Academy–jointly sponsored by NSTA, The Dow Chemical Company, the Amgen Foundation, Astellas Pharma US, Inc., the American Honda Foundation, the Bayer USA Foundation, and Lockheed Martin–provides a year-long “professional development program designed to help promote quality science teaching, enhance teacher confidence and classroom excellence and improve teacher content knowledge.”

Congratulations, Marsha and Ashley–two great examples of the quality of the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows!