When students first apply to the Wildlife Leadership Academy, they answer a question on the application: “Are you ready to become a Conservation Ambassador?”
It’s a little cart-before-the-horse of us to ask this before they even arrive at field school, but we are setting the stage for every participant to know what they are signing on for when they attend an Academy field school. Not only will they receive an outstanding educational experience, but we will also set them up for success to return to their communities to engage in outreach projects that help spread the conservation message.
Every Academy student post-field school must conduct projects in their home community and create an outreach book documenting their work. These outreach projects are a proxy for measuring leadership, whether students are leading themselves or leading others. The main reasons we have students track their outreach progress are so they can see the many things they accomplish and that the Academy has a way of “quantifying” what our students have been up to. The student reporting forms in their outreach books let us track how many hours they spend working on outreach, the number of people they engage with, the groups and organizations they partner with to accomplish great things, and more! This way, we can share our Conservation Ambassadors’ many adventures with you, their adoring fans and supporters. Outreach accomplishments are also how we are able to decide who returns the following summer as a youth mentor and which five students will receive our Ralph Abele Excellence in Outreach Award, each award accompanied by a $500 college scholarship.
During their outreach journey, students can submit their outreach books for an “Early Bird” check-in date, when the books are scored and returned to them. As a reward, those students who submit on this date and their families are invited to our special Early Bird Trip. This year, we had the unique opportunity to visit Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. A day of strolling along the nature trails, visiting with reptiles, and meeting the residents of the aviary awaited us. After a lovely trip down the boardwalk trail (where we saw several frogs and smelled the sweet spring scents of emerging skunk cabbage), our hosts, Allie and Alex, demonstrated how Shaver’s Creek is working with their resident reptiles on behavioral studies. Their ambassador rat snake also stopped by to show off her beautiful scales!
Stefani, an Ursids alum meeting the rat snake.
After lunch, we spent our afternoon on a Flock Walk with Jane, the sandhill crane. Jane showed us how clever she is with her behavioral demonstration of solving an elaborate puzzle box to reveal the reward of scrambled eggs and shrimp. Our students spoke with staff members about their educational journeys, how they ended up at Shaver’s Creek, as well as how several of the resident ambassador animals, like Jane, made their way to the nature center. Once Jane had her fill of corn nibbles and was ready to return to her enclosure, we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at the aviary. We learned how different trainers at Shaver’s Creek work with each bird to keep them exercised and offer daily enrichment activities. Lenny the crow, for example, enjoys playing his piano and recycling items in his crow-sized recycle bins. At the same time, Susquehanna, the golden eagle, has a good time chasing a rope-and-food-filled ball that she can tear at with her impressive talons.
The group observing Jane’s many talents.
Throughout the day, students not only had the opportunity to hang out together (sometimes meeting for the first time, as they came from all different field schools) but also compared outreach notes, networked with staff members, and had the chance to share with their families what makes them so passionate about our natural resources. Shaver’s Creek is a wonderful place to learn more about our natural environment. We look forward to bringing students there again year after year!
Celebrating Conservation Outreach at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center
Posted: April 19, 2025 by Katie Mace
When students first apply to the Wildlife Leadership Academy, they answer a question on the application: “Are you ready to become a Conservation Ambassador?”
It’s a little cart-before-the-horse of us to ask this before they even arrive at field school, but we are setting the stage for every participant to know what they are signing on for when they attend an Academy field school. Not only will they receive an outstanding educational experience, but we will also set them up for success to return to their communities to engage in outreach projects that help spread the conservation message.
Every Academy student post-field school must conduct projects in their home community and create an outreach book documenting their work. These outreach projects are a proxy for measuring leadership, whether students are leading themselves or leading others. The main reasons we have students track their outreach progress are so they can see the many things they accomplish and that the Academy has a way of “quantifying” what our students have been up to. The student reporting forms in their outreach books let us track how many hours they spend working on outreach, the number of people they engage with, the groups and organizations they partner with to accomplish great things, and more! This way, we can share our Conservation Ambassadors’ many adventures with you, their adoring fans and supporters. Outreach accomplishments are also how we are able to decide who returns the following summer as a youth mentor and which five students will receive our Ralph Abele Excellence in Outreach Award, each award accompanied by a $500 college scholarship.
During their outreach journey, students can submit their outreach books for an “Early Bird” check-in date, when the books are scored and returned to them. As a reward, those students who submit on this date and their families are invited to our special Early Bird Trip. This year, we had the unique opportunity to visit Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. A day of strolling along the nature trails, visiting with reptiles, and meeting the residents of the aviary awaited us. After a lovely trip down the boardwalk trail (where we saw several frogs and smelled the sweet spring scents of emerging skunk cabbage), our hosts, Allie and Alex, demonstrated how Shaver’s Creek is working with their resident reptiles on behavioral studies. Their ambassador rat snake also stopped by to show off her beautiful scales!
After lunch, we spent our afternoon on a Flock Walk with Jane, the sandhill crane. Jane showed us how clever she is with her behavioral demonstration of solving an elaborate puzzle box to reveal the reward of scrambled eggs and shrimp. Our students spoke with staff members about their educational journeys, how they ended up at Shaver’s Creek, as well as how several of the resident ambassador animals, like Jane, made their way to the nature center. Once Jane had her fill of corn nibbles and was ready to return to her enclosure, we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at the aviary. We learned how different trainers at Shaver’s Creek work with each bird to keep them exercised and offer daily enrichment activities. Lenny the crow, for example, enjoys playing his piano and recycling items in his crow-sized recycle bins. At the same time, Susquehanna, the golden eagle, has a good time chasing a rope-and-food-filled ball that she can tear at with her impressive talons.
Throughout the day, students not only had the opportunity to hang out together (sometimes meeting for the first time, as they came from all different field schools) but also compared outreach notes, networked with staff members, and had the chance to share with their families what makes them so passionate about our natural resources. Shaver’s Creek is a wonderful place to learn more about our natural environment. We look forward to bringing students there again year after year!
Category: Youth Blog Tags: early bird reward, education, featured, nature observation, shaver's creek