WKU News

Sydney is currently teaching French at Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington, KY. In 2020, earned the Kentucky World Language Association (KWLA) Outstanding Rising Star Teacher Award. She is the first French teacher at her school and was challenged to create a program from scratch. “I took the students for my first year with no content made… and grew the program to be where it is now; I'm still the only French teacher”.

Sydney stressed that the MHC “allows you to foster connections and really develop yourself as an individual… I was kind of sheltered at the beginning with the Honors College and then bled out into the general population” The MHC also helped Sydney gain confidence knowing that “what I’m doing and experiencing is not the norm and that I am special”. One piece of advice she would emphasize to all MHC scholars is to “do everything, get out of your comfort zone, make connections with your community, and take every single chance that comes in front of you”. Sydney was able to make the MHC “her oyster” because she felt that she was surrounded by an amazing support system and always felt like “pushing [herself] to match the energy of [her] peers”.

We loved hearing how much the MHC helped Sydney get out of her comfort zone; we look forward to seeing where she goes in her career and continues to grow!