About Galen
Hometown: Eugene, OR
Degree: Master of Arts in Teaching, Duke University 2022; B.A. in History, University of Oregon 2018
Galen is a graduate of Duke's Master of Arts in Teaching Program and first-year social studies teacher at Durham's Southern School of Energy and Sustainability. He previously attended the University of Oregon, where he received a Bachelor's degree in history. Afterward, Galen joined the Peace Corps and worked in Ethiopia, where he taught English at the Birbirsa Secondary School in the Illubabor Zone of western Oromia.
Why did you decide to teach?
I am inspired and motivated by the change-making potential of and need for dedicated educators. As a career social studies teacher, I hope to bring a wide world of perspectives to my students so that one day they will be empowered to tackle today's most pressing issues. I am most passionate about creating positive, empowered spaces where students, teachers, staff, and parents can feel a sense of trust and community with one another. Schools are sites of power where we as a society pass on our values, whether through instruction or by example. The community built through schools, and centered around our young people, can become powerful sites for social change and progress. Education is at its best when it is relational, bringing the members of a place into a tighter community, and founded in a hope with new generations that the tomorrow's future will be better than the yesterday's past.