By Jennifer Colosimo
Sprayberry High School’s Dr. Hannah Oldham has been teaching for 17 years, developing a knack for sharing knowledge on topics she’s passionate about herself. As an award-winning educator loved by her STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), algebra and AP Seminar students, she enters a new era of opening doors for them as the 2024 Georgia STEM Teacher of the Year.
Q: What does it mean to you to be named Georgia STEM Teacher of the Year by Air & Space Forces Association?
Dr. Hannah Oldham: It means so much because one of the driving aspects that I bring to our STEM Academy is a focus on the Artemis Generation. These students are part of the generation which will see not only the first woman and person of color to land on the moon but also will be integral to the team that gets humans to Mars. Receiving the STEM Teacher of The Year recognition from the Space Force inspires me to keep pushing my students to the stars.
Q: Your students have won the Worldwide Plant Mars Competition twice. What is the secret to their success?
HO: Facilitated by the amazing Todd Hefflinger and Molly Jirasakhiran, the first year that we participated in the competition we had no funding or resources. Todd and I applied for and won the 2022 Cobb Tank grant which earned us $10,000 to fund our research. It helped us buy equipment and supplies to allow us to do professional-level research. [This team does] an amazing job exposing students to professional research techniques as underclassmen.
Q: How have you seen the impact of being a STEM teacher?
HO: One of my students, Casey Hampson, was selected as one of only 15 Americans to study at the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) laboratory in Switzerland last summer. It is where the large-hadron collider is held and the top physicists (multiple Nobel Prize winners) work to expand research.
Q: What continues to motivate you as a teacher?
HO: My students; and giving them opportunities that they didn’t even know were possible, like international competitions, National Women in Technology, internships at NASA and more.
Q: Where can people find you in East Cobb?
HO: I love getting comics at Dr. No’s Comics and Games SuperStore. I also love hiking Kennesaw Mountain. My dad is an illustrator and has a placard on the trail about Civil War base camps.
