Sydney Vander Waerdt

Sydney graduated from CSU in 2020 with a bachelor’s in Cultural Anthropology and a minor in Environmental Sciences. In college, she studied abroad in rural South Africa in a program called Communities and Conservations, which she now realizes was a program based on place-based learning. Upon returning home, she assisted the professors who took her to South Africa in homeschooling their son and she learned that place-based learning was the most effective, memorable, and fun way to teach children. In the last couple of years, she has spent her time traveling and nannying, and although she loves what she does she’s excited to fine-tune her skills in childhood education and beyond. When she found the Americorp position at TSS, she knew it was the perfect marriage of her past experiences and her current interests. She can’t wait to explore the Teton and Yellowstone areas and see what they have to teach her. Sydney likes to spend her free time reading, gardening, doing yoga or pilates, and spending time outdoors with her friends.