Gillespie awarded Kenan Fellowship

Anna Gillespie, a math teacher at Sampson Early College High School, is stepping out of her comfort zone this summer to try and do something new — learning about turkey production in Sampson County — with her 2024-25 Kenan Fellowship.

At the May 28 Sampson County Board of Education meeting, Sampson Early College High School Principal Monty Strickland announced that Gillespie was awarded the fellowship through the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership at North Carolina State University.

“Her fellowship is made possible through the support of the Sampson County Farm Bureau, North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and the North Carolina Ag in the Classroom,” Strickland said in making the announcement.

But what leads a math teacher to take a fellowship to learn about turkey production in Sampson County?

“Well, turkey production was actually the Kenan Fellowship that was offered,” Gillespie clarified. “It would not have been my first choice.”

She said the fellowship program “works with different people in parts of the state on different fellowships.” And in one county they might be working with something like energy sources, but since agriculture is big in Sampson County it meant turkey production was associated to the county.

“Obviously, for Sampson County, you know our big thing is agriculture. So, the fellowship that’s associated with Sampson County was specifically sponsored by the NC Farm Bureau, and so that is who is kind of like leading the way and they needed somebody to do this research on turkey production and produce the NC Ag Mag.”

A press release from the Kenan Fellows stated that over the summer “Gillespie will learn about turkey production in Sampson County by visiting farms and meeting one-on-one with local producers.”

Gillespie said on top of meeting with turkey producers, she will have a week-long immersion experience at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching to learn more about professional development and leadership.

“The first thing I get to do this summer is go to NCCAT, and it is kind of a week-long immersion experience for teachers,” Gillespie said. “And we get to go for a week and have professional development and just kind of learn about ways that we can expand our thinking on leadership possibilities and things like that.”

She’ll also attend a fall and spring institute with the Kenan Fellowship to show what she’s been doing.

“I get to [go to the institutes] in October and I believe April in order to show what I’ve been doing up to this point,” Gillespie said. “And then in April, it will be actually showing the Ag Mag that was created.”

She said that the NC Farm Bureau also wanted her to go in December to be “recognized as the person in charge of creating the Ag Mag for this Sampson County project.”

Gillespie, according to the Kenan Fellows press release, will be working with NC Ag in the Classroom to create an Ag Mag that is focused on turkey production. It is stated that the Ag Mag will be released digitally and in print.

But Gillespie said that what she’s looking forward to with this fellowship is the chance to network with other people she can potentially bring back into his classroom to talk to her students.

“It’s kind of out of my comfort zone to go and study turkey production since I’m a math teacher, but I’m excited about meeting new people and creating different collaborations with some of the agriculture-related business that is in Sampson County,” she stated. “And then I can bring those people back into my classroom as resources for my students as they graduate.”

When introducing the fellowship in the board meeting, Strickland mentioned that only 38 teachers in the state are chosen. Gillespie went on to say that out of the 38 chosen, only two were from the area.

“There are 38 Kenan Fellows selected from across the state of North Carolina,” Gillespie said. “And out of those 38, there’s really only two from my region. And that’s me, and I believe somebody from Duplin County.”

According to the press release, the fellowship lasts for a year and is granted to the teachers after a “rigorous application process.” Gillespie said that application included her “listing her accomplishments, grants and awards,” writing several essays and going through an interview process for different fellowships that were offered.