16 Sep Something I learned at my park

My motivation to reach out to other communities has always been something I have been involved in since middle school. So to be doing this large project all on my own has surprisingly been at least comfortable and familiar for me to do. While there are days that I am alone and figuring things out for myself as opposed to before when I had large groups with me and older adults helping with the more complicated things, I’ve definitely noticed that all my past experiences are helping me a lot. When I’m not working on this project creating a lesson plan, I have also learned that I want to focus more on strict personal/group research with birds and fieldwork as well. Being so close to nature all day has opened my eyes more to this desire of mine. It’s not an entirely new interest however, one of the big reasons I took on this role at Ankeny Hill was to be in touch with nature closely like this. I knew my history with community outreach combined with my love for wildlife would make for a great experience regarding my role here. Seeing the wildlife and watching over the fantastic view have both also inspired some new artwork of mine, and it’s that interest that drives the larger project I’m creating with the Boys and Girls Club. To teach the youth who otherwise wouldn’t think twice about the nature surrounding them, to begin caring for it at even a young age is really important to me. What I aspire most out of this internship is to make an impact on the environment. Whether that be through creating lesson plans, reaching out to communities to let them know what the purpose of the Ankeny Hill refuge is, or learning myself what I could be doing to help, all of it is at the same level of priority for me.