Isabella Marill, an alumna of the Teacher Education Program (TEP) at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, was named a Knowles Teaching Fellow for 2019. The Knowles Fellowship, a five-year program, supports, sustains, and inspires exceptional young people committed to making a difference as science and mathematics teachers in U.S. high schools. The program provides financial support for tuition assistance, grants, and professional development; professional support in the form of meetings, mentoring, and resources; and a strong, like-minded community of outstanding professional teachers.
Prior to earning her Single Subject Teaching Credential in Science and Masters in Education (M.Ed.) from UCSB’s TEP in 2018, Marill earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences from University of Washington and a Masters of Environmental Science and Management from the UCSB’s Bren School. As a student of UCSB’s TEP (2017-18), Marill was awarded multiple honors, including a Dorman Commons Fellowship and a California Retired Teachers Association Anne & Harry Scales Scholarship, and she was also a STEM Teachers for English Language Learners: Excellence and Retention (STELLER) Noyce Scholar.
Immediately following graduation from TEP and leading to this selective honor as a Knowles Fellow, Marill’s most recent endeavor was as a Science Communications Fellow for the exploration vessel Nautilus, an operation of The Ocean Exploration Trust non-profit organization. After being chosen from a vast number of teacher candidates nationwide, her task was to watch the cameras of a Remotely Operated Vehicle titled Hercules, and verbally interpret what she saw to an international audience. Specifically, she participated in the Northeast Pacific Seamount Expedition. Exploring abroad Nautilus Live is nothing foreign to UCSB Alumni, as Marill continued the steps of two other TEP candidates-turned-fellows, Tommy Riparetti (2017) and Katelyn Standerfer (2016) in subsequent years, as well as The Ocean Exploration Trust founder and UCSB alumni, Dr. Robert Ballard.
In her new venture as a Knowles Fellow, Marill succeeds a long line of UCSB TEP Alumni Fellowship recipients, including: Levi Miller (2017), Hannah Seyb (2016), Erika Bland (2014), Matthew Wilson (2014), Michelle Leber (2013), and Justine Ophanon (2013). The Knowles Teacher Initiative was established in 1999 by Janet H. and C. Harry Knowles to cultivate and support exemplary science and mathematics high school teachers and develop the next generation of leaders in education.
When asked what advice she would give to someone who wanted a career like hers, Marill replied, “If you want to be a science teacher (especially a biology teacher), take lots of science classes in college, and take every opportunity to travel and be outdoors to inspire your future lessons!”