Member Bios

Leah Cantor is the leader for this wonderful Kansas based crew. She is originally from New York and brings a varied background to this crew- having experience teaching in both indoor and outdoor settings. With NorthWest Youth Corps, she worked as an AmeriCorps teacher at an Outdoor Alternative High School. She worked for over a year at Pok‐O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center, in which she was able to get paid to take students Kindergarten to College aged on hikes, bike rides, rock climbing and other fun and exciting outdoor activities. She has also worked for The SCA doing various programs for the past four years. The one she started with and has the most experience with is National High School Crews. She started her wonderful SCA career in Natchez Trace Parkway, MS teaching students how to do various forms of trail work. Her next gig with The SCA was in Chattahoochee National Forest, GA. Next, she had the pleasure of leading with the greatest agency contact of all time (Mr. Steve Lowe) in Harpers Ferry, WV. She enjoyed her time so immensely, that she decided to go back there for a second summer as well. Her next experience with The SCA was attending the Dr. Pepper/Snapple Convention in Texas. Here, along with four others, she focused on getting the public involved with planting native grass and removing trash in a local park. Her next gig with The SCA was with leader teams. She was lucky enough to be put on a Fall 2012 Virginia Crew with four other wonderful people. Here, she was able to step up her trail skills and she was working with peers- as opposed to high school students, which was a fun change of pace. In this crew they focused on creating a new trail where the owner of the park had been hoping one would be built for years. We focused on fence construction out of rustic timber that we chainsawed down. Our team also built a dead-man retaining wall out of rustic timber we also cut down. The next SCA leader team she was given a chance to be a part of was something she will never forget. She was lucky enough to be chosen to be a part of the wonderful Hurricane Sandy Relief Team. Here, the crew focused on tree removal with chainsaws and general trail maintenance on both hiking and biking trails. This crew went around to 6 different state parks in New Jersey during the 14 days. She felt accomplished in doing her part to help the general public after a major natural disaster. Her personal goal for this program is to constantly immerse herself in new places and parks, always learning ways that will help her move forward with her outdoor education life. Her professional goal for this program is to become a better leader for The SCA, learning how to adapt her ways to maximize the potential for each of her members- which she will hopefully attain by being given the chance to continue supervising peers this summer.

Hi, I’m Alison. I hail from Kansas City, Missouri and I graduated from Columbia College, in Columbia Missouri in 2012. I started off working at a huge pumpkin patch down by the Missouri River feeding hungry customers and watching pig races while going to high school, to interning at the Omaha Zoo and Wildlife Safari Park last year. The last five years have been a little crazy! (Example, photo above – Oreo, one of the orneriest African pygmy goats ever known to man).
Some of my hobbies include, reading, travelling when I get the chance, watching movies, geography, hiking, photography, and fishing to name a few. What drives me is this, I’ve always had a place in my heart for wildlife and conservation and grew up with this message ingrained in my brain from my parents; which is what brought me to accepting this internship in Kansas. I am concerned with preserving our natural resources and thankful for this opportunity to be involved with conservation and earn a whole new set of skills.

A native of Tulsa, OK, Joshua came to the SCA having graduated from the University of Oklahoma, where he earned his B.S. in Geographic Information Science and his Minor in Meteorology.  As an undergraduate, Joshua was an active leader of his peers, involved in activities at both the university and state level.  During his last year of study and briefly after graduating, Joshua also worked as a research assistant within a university laboratory where he modeled the primary productivity of agroecosystems.  This work exposed Joshua to the world of intensive academic research, a previously unknown love of his.

Now, having several presentations, coauthorship of a book chapter, and a published, peer-reviewed paper under his belt, Joshua is helping expose individuals to the conservation opportunities in northeast Oklahoma before he continues with postgraduate study.  This will be Joshua's fourth program with the SCA.  Previous positions have been with the 2012 Army Corps Visitor Use Survey Team in northeast Oklahoma, an SCA Leader Team working at the El Malpais National Conservation Area and the Rio Chama Wilderness Study Area in New Mexico, and the 2013 Army Corps Visitor Use Survey Leader Team in central Texas.

When not learning, researching, and writing, Joshua enjoys kicking a ball at the local soccer pitch, running through mud and dirt anywhere he might find it, and helping out his family, friends, and community with any little task he can put his hands to.  And much of that is exactly what his goal is this season.  Getting his team dirty, working hard, and gaining some hands on field experience in a setting they'll love is what Joshua is looking forward to the most!

Hi guys, my name is Dan and I will be coming from Wichita, KS. This is going to be my first experience with the SCA, and I am really looking forward to meeting you all and getting started. After this semester ends on Friday, I will be a Senior in Anthropology, focusing on Archaeology, at Wichita State University. I’m hoping to take my career in Archaeology to the National Parks Service after graduate school; using the skills and contacts I form in the SCA to supplement the transition. I grew up in the rural outskirts a small town in southeast Kansas, and that is where I discovered a passion for the outdoors. I’ve only resided in Wichita since transferring from a smaller University last August. My hobbies generally focus around maintaining health, being outside, and spending very little money. I know the Lawrence area decently well and find it to be one of the most progressive and fun cities in Kansas! There are several really nice Frisbee golf courses, single-track mountain bike trails, and a range of great areas for longboarding. I’m absolutely driven by my desire to have a National Park as my backyard. I want to be able to conserve and present the histories of cultures that formed from the environment and how they in turn affected the landscape.  I currently work as a front desk representative at a hotel and can’t wait to talk to people who are visiting an area for recreation, as opposed to visiting for business! I’m really looking forward to facilitating the effort to better suit the area’s recreational activities to the wishes of the communities that use them. I can’t wait until the end of this week, and that’s not just because I want finals to be over!

Dan

At the age of 29, Chris Zinski has finally found something in his life that he is both happy and comfortable to be a part of.  In August 2012, he joined the Veterans Fire Corps as an intern located in Flagstaff, AZ. The amount of knowledge and the great opportunity that was set before him was incredible. It was truly a life changing experience for him. Ever since he departed from the Marine Corps in 2009, he had been looking for that team-like-feeling that had once made sense to him. The SCA has provided Chris with a new passion and a new direction in his life. Chris will be leading a crew of interns this year in the Black Hills National Forest in hopes that his Veterans Fires Corps interns can experience that same kind of change and inspiration in their lives.