12/3/24

By FHSU University Communications

HAYS, Kan. – John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens while you are making other plans.” This phrase describes Calena Awesome’s personal and academic journey over the past 15 years. In 2009, Calena Moore was a student at Wichita State University pursuing her bachelor’s degree. Then life happened; she married, took on a new last name, and created a life with her husband and their first son. She also decided to leave WSU.

Calena’s next move was to follow in the footsteps of her father, a public school teacher with 30 years of experience in the field. Several years after she left WSU, Calena enrolled in a joint Emporia State University/Butler Community College teacher education program. She earned her associate’s degree from Butler in 2019, and then in 2021, she decided to enroll in the teacher education program offered by Fort Hays State University Online.

“I just found the combination of affordability and flexibility at FHSU the best fit,” Calena said. “I needed a program that would allow me to strike a balance between my responsibilities as a parent, a full-time employee, and a college student.”

While she’s made her way through the online teacher education program, Calena has kept her full-time job as a teacher in a Wichita child development center, consistently maintained a courseload of 12 credit hours per semester, and welcomed a second son into her family.

The truly remarkable piece of Calena’s FHSU Online experience has been the off-the-grid field research projects she has found time to wrap around her busy schedule. Last May, Calena accepted an invitation from FHSU Teacher Education Professor Dr. Mathew Clay to join him and several students on an expedition to El Dorado State Park in Kansas to participate in Clay’s 360-degree imaging project. While tent-camping at El Dorado State Park, the Clay expedition encountered severe weather that forced them to abandon their tents and campsite to seek shelter in their cars.

The purpose of the project is to create a library of 360-degree videos that can be used as virtual field trips for students of all abilities who otherwise would likely not have an opportunity to experience a journey deep into nature due to distance, cost, or other logistical issues.

Undeterred by the conditions she experienced on the first expedition, Calena returned to Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park with Clay and several students in July of 2024 to continue working on the imaging project. While hiking the mountains in Colorado, they kept an eye on wildfires nearby that created smokey conditions and a fire ban.

“The students knew I was in my 30s and not the typical adventurous college student, but they never treated me differently,” Calena said. She went on to say that she felt the need to do this kind of fieldwork because she wanted to dig deeper and get the most out of every possible experience, get out of her comfort zone, and try new things.

There is also a practical side to Calena’s commitment to getting out in the field. She knows she can use the imagery she helped capture in her next role as a 5th-grade teacher with Unified School District 259 in Wichita. Her first day on the new job will be December 16, right after FHSU’s Fall Commencement celebration on December 13.