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A Ripple Effect

Mary Plumb, a Falconer Central School math teacher, decided to become a teacher while serving in the U.S. Air Force. Now, she hopes her teaching can inspire generations to come. P-J photos by Jordan W. Patterson

FALCONER — Coordinating air traffic at Travis Air Force Base, Mary Plumb realized that through teaching she could possibly change the world.

However, to pursue this new inner calling she would have to leave an occupation she loved. But for Plumb, the change in career was a chance to contribute to “a ripple effect for good throughout the world.”

Plumb is currently a Falconer Central School math teacher, and previously taught in California where she began her current career in 2003.

She is also a member of the New York State Master Teacher Program, which she actively participated in for four years. Plumb is now technically a Master Teacher Emeritus, one of almost 300 New York teachers who completed the four-year program.

New York state created the Master Teacher Program for public school teachers throughout the state in 2013. There are more than 900 master teachers within the program that is focused around Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM. New York state teachers in grades K-12, who instruct STEM and computer science, are eligible for the program. The program follows a professional-learning model that highlights STEM content, pedagogy and knowledge of students, families and communities.

During Plumb’s time serving the country through the military as an airfield operations officer, she was contemplating other methods to serve the world.

“I loved my job,” said Plumb, who served as an airfield operations officer. “It was amazing and challenging and I worked with really good people, but just thinking about the larger impact I’d kind of like to have in society that’s when I decided to become a teacher.”

Plumb reached the rank of captain before leaving. For four years in the Air Force, which she described as her “formative years,” the Falconer teacher worked as a first lieutenant directly under Gen. Paul Selva, who retired in July 2019 as the 10th vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was also the second highest ranking officer in the military and the highest ranking officer in the Air Force.

“He was an incredible mentor to me in terms of stepping up and facing issues head on and figuring out ways to solve them, and always being kind and gracious about it,” Plumb said.

After the Air Force, Plumb secured a job implementing airfield planning and design at Sacramento International Airport, which she also loved. At that time, she was attending Chapman University at night, pursuing her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction as well as earning her teaching credential. She previously earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame through the Reserve Officer Training Corps, or the ROTC, program where she studied math.

Plumb taught for six years in California until she returned to Chautauqua County in 2008. Her first full-time job was at Fairfield High School within the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District that managed thousands of students.

See TEACHER, Page A3

From Page A1

“I was teaching in a converted mobile trailer type-thing,” Plumb recalled. “I had 35 students in my class. We didn’t have enough desks. It was eye opening. That was my first year teaching.”

She later taught for four years at American Canyon Middle School in Napa, Calif.

“I was pretty fortunate there,” Plumb said. “It was a very progressive school in terms of how they approach student learning and student community.”

Originally from Randolph, where her parents instilled in her a sense of community, she was excited to return to a place close to home and family. So it’s fitting that Plumb, upon her homecoming, eventually became the adviser of the FCS Key Club, a charitable student group that often benefits the local community. Notable efforts by the Key Club include creating a community garden housed at the high school that supported a local pantry and traveling to the Dominican Republic to build water infrastructure for a rural village.

“This just happened to be a perfect fit,” she said. “There was an opening. It was where I wanted to be and I was qualified. It just worked out rather serendipitously I think.”

Recently, one of Plumb’s sixth-grade STEM class students, working on a project based on world issues, asked if she has solved any of the world’s problems.

She responded: “I don’t know if I’ve solved world problems, but I’ve taught probably over 2,000 kids in my life and I think that probably sends a ripple effect of empowerment out into the world to do good things.”

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