Fund for Teachers - The Podcast

Fund for Teachers is a national nonprofit that awards grants for self-designed fellowships to America's most innovative preK-12 teachers. This is a podcast to elevate these public/private/charter school educators as inspiring architects of their careers, classrooms and school communities.

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Fund for Teachers - The Podcast

Braving the Badlands

July 10, 2026 • Carrie Caton

0:00 | 35:35

President Theodore Roosevelt said, "…a special and peculiar debt of gratitude is owing to the men and women who are engaged in teaching, who are engaged in educating the body, mind and soul of the younger generation…” His Presidential Library is opened this month in western North Dakota (fittingly on July the Fourth) and just days after Eric Sullenberger drove though the Badlands, a rugged landscape Roosevelt famously credited with shaping his life, once saying he never would have become president had it not been for his experiences there.

Eric’s experiences were equally formative, although his constituents are every science student in every science subject in a rural Ohio high school. He crafted his fellowship/road trip to study interconnected geological formations and analyze volcanic, tectonic, and erosional processes. And along the way, he encountered the enduring legacy of TR himself.

Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org.

Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress