Working at A Swamp
I didn't want to spend another summer wasting my time, without a job, without much contribution to the world, so I decided to reach out to environmental organizations and nature education facilities. It took me a bit after applying to multiple places in a 50 mile radius of Syracuse until I found the Great Swamp Conservancy. It seemed simple enough to apply to just send them an email explaining your interest. I thought it'd just be another place that ignored my attempt to reach out. But, luckily, a few days later they reached out to plan an interview. I came in for the interview and everyone was so kind, I thought it went really well. Before I knew it I was hired and ready to work in the beginning of June. I was super excited to be blessed with an awesome opportunity to educate youth about the importance of our environment. With a major in Environmental Studies with a concentration in communication this felt like the perfect internship for me.
Telling people I work at a swamp can often show a confused reaction or a condescending "interesting.." of course these all the people that aren't environmentalists. My school peers most commonly react with "So cool! I'm obsessed with bogs". But for those who don't completely understand what we do at GSC or the importance of it, I'll explain. The first week I came in we had 3 different groups of fifth graders for 3 days in a row. It was a crazy introduction but it was awesome. The first day I joined another intern to take the kids on a "Swamp Tromp" where we walked over to the swamp and kids would catch with their nets anything they could in the swamp and put them in these plastic bins we brought. That day I learned a lot about the biodiverse ecosystem of a swamp, we found small to large tadpoles, green frogs, water bugs, dragonfly larve, crayfish, snails and even leeches. The kids were so excited about all these finds but we stressed the most important thing is to release them back in their habitat. The next couple of days I helped lead a game about deer population growth, and I watched the kids be taught about the watershed they live in and how pollution affects it. The next week we participated in a parade in Canastota, stressing the importance of saving pollinators. We also host a multitude of events and have different groups come that we work with. For instance we had a group of low-functioning autistic adults come and we helped them create flower terrariums and play bird bingo and they had a great time.
Working at a swamp is much more than that sentence can tell. It feels great to be a part of the only environmental non-profit of Canastota, NY and be a great source of environmental education in upstate NY. Great Swamp has opened my eyes to many different creative ways of environmental public outreach that I couldn't of just learned in the classroom. Even just working here a couple weeks so far, I feel purposeful engaging people of all ages with the natural world which is not an opportunity many people have. I feel lucky to be a part of the awesome team at GSC.
Below is a picture of the float we put together for the parade.
Telling people I work at a swamp can often show a confused reaction or a condescending "interesting.." of course these all the people that aren't environmentalists. My school peers most commonly react with "So cool! I'm obsessed with bogs". But for those who don't completely understand what we do at GSC or the importance of it, I'll explain. The first week I came in we had 3 different groups of fifth graders for 3 days in a row. It was a crazy introduction but it was awesome. The first day I joined another intern to take the kids on a "Swamp Tromp" where we walked over to the swamp and kids would catch with their nets anything they could in the swamp and put them in these plastic bins we brought. That day I learned a lot about the biodiverse ecosystem of a swamp, we found small to large tadpoles, green frogs, water bugs, dragonfly larve, crayfish, snails and even leeches. The kids were so excited about all these finds but we stressed the most important thing is to release them back in their habitat. The next couple of days I helped lead a game about deer population growth, and I watched the kids be taught about the watershed they live in and how pollution affects it. The next week we participated in a parade in Canastota, stressing the importance of saving pollinators. We also host a multitude of events and have different groups come that we work with. For instance we had a group of low-functioning autistic adults come and we helped them create flower terrariums and play bird bingo and they had a great time.
Working at a swamp is much more than that sentence can tell. It feels great to be a part of the only environmental non-profit of Canastota, NY and be a great source of environmental education in upstate NY. Great Swamp has opened my eyes to many different creative ways of environmental public outreach that I couldn't of just learned in the classroom. Even just working here a couple weeks so far, I feel purposeful engaging people of all ages with the natural world which is not an opportunity many people have. I feel lucky to be a part of the awesome team at GSC.
Below is a picture of the float we put together for the parade.
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