SCA Alumni E-newsletter Editorial Board Members and Contributing Writers 2007
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Elizabeth Jeanne Allen
After finishing my internship at Zion National Park this past fall, I returned to my birthplace Phoenix, Arizona. August 2005 I received my degree in Environmental Science with an Emphasis in Biology from Northern Arizona University. The B.S. is largely attributed to many kind mentors, friends, teachers, and an NSF grant funded undergraduate research project on Reclaimed Wastewater in Flagstaff. In 2002 I finished my soccer career and graduated from the Phoenix College honors program with my AA in Social Work. Luck, family, hard work, and frugality have afforded me the luxury to travel, hike, and explore many parts of this country and others. One day I would like the opportunity to return to places like Costa Rica, Mexico, New Zealand, Fiji, or simply the reservation family land in North Carolina as a contributor, not just a visitor. Literacy Volunteers of Coconino County re-introduced the importance of reading from outside our cultural perspective. My current goals are to finish learning Spanish, find a safe bike route to Tempe, and begin transferring past photos and journals to the people that have touched my life. Volunteer work can change your life…if life is what you make of it, why sit back and watch others have all the fun?
Alex A. S. Antram
I am a senior anthropology of religion student at George Mason University. My interests include human rights, world music, traveling, and martial arts. I’m delighted to be pursuing my passion for writing through contributing to the SCA's electronic newsletter Editorial Board.
Cashea Marie-Joyce Arrington
In summer of 2005, I served in Andersonville National Historic Site for 4-5 weeks where I did 270 hours of service down in the beautiful swamps of Georgia. Mosquitoes, Alligators and Poison Ivy were part of the time spent in Andersonville with people who I've never met before, but soon found out we were so much alike and are proud to say we served on the same crew. I love being outdoors, whether it being camping, hiking, tubing, or just a weekend jaunt, the thrill still excites me. I absolutely adore the Smoky Mountains and I do most of my outdoor activities up there. Currently, I'm in my senior year of high school, getting out a year early, and hope to find myself attending Maryville College in Maryville Tennessee to further my education and become a Law Enforcement Park Ranger with the National Park Service and also major in Bear Biology to coincide with the Forestry/ Wildlife Management Degree.
Owen W. Baughman
Eastern Nevada has been my home since the day I first entered this world; and what a world it is. Growing up in a very rural setting at the base of a magnificent mountain range, I grew up with a solid understanding of the natural world. In 2003, I applied and was accepted for placement on an SCA high school conservation crew in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area (FCRNRWA...much shorter) which happens to be the second largest wilderness area in the lower 48 (second to Death Valley in CA). This crew was one of the most exciting, most memorable, and most important things I had done in my life. It really changed the direction of what is to be my career. Currently, I am suffering from a minor case of senioritis as I finish my last year of High School. I have worked for The Nature Conservancy for two summers, collecting data to study and understand the dynamics of local native vegetation communities, and am currently in the arduous process of writing and executing a study on specific relationships within these communities, which I hope to have published in a science journal before I graduate in May.
Christopher Colvin (Chris)
After graduating from UC Berkeley in May 2005, I served as a conservation intern in Yellowstone National Park. I worked in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone district with the backcountry rangers. I cleared trails, maintained campsites, staffed the backcountry permit office, participated in search and rescue operations, and controlled traffic around "wildlife jams." Currently, I am a seasonal fisheries and wildlife biologist at the East Bay Municipal Utilities District in the San Francisco Bay Area. I monitor populations of California Red-legged frog, Chinook Salmon, Steelhead trout, and other aquatic vertebrates. As a result of my SCA experience, I am aiming for a career with the National Park Service.
Pamela Domash
I served as an SCA intern at Petersburg National Battlefield in Petersburg, Virginia in the summer of 2005. I worked with the Interpretation Department at Petersburg, staffing the visitor centers, leading informal programs, and roving the trails via horseback. Currently I am, sadly, no longer in Virginia, but rather completing my final semester at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, finishing my honors senior thesis in history. In the summer I will be joining the workforce in a currently undetermined position.
Rachel Lea Driver
I am currently readjusting, reluctantly, to life in the city after a whirlwind of graduating from the University of Chicago with an M.A. in Social Sciences and my subsequent escape into the woods of Virginia and North Carolina as an SCA crew leader for the summer. I lead two amazing crews of high school students in intensive trail work, making memories and broadening horizons through vastly new experience, and walked them through the steps of low-impact outdoor living. At the moment I am exploring the possibility of volunteering at the Field Museum several hours each week, while continuing my employment at LUSH wine and spirits, a new concept of wine store that involves a casual, straight forward approach to wine by actually tasting before taking it home. While in Chicago, I am dedicated to continuing my thread of involvement with SCA and the broader expanse of environmental awareness and stewardship, as well as spending as much time outside getting muddy and developing a new sense of place as possible.
Pipa Elias, SCA Board of Directors Liaison to Editorial Board
I am a graduate student at Virginia Tech, working towards a Masters of Science in Forestry. As an SCA intern, I served for the US Forest Service New Century of Service Internship, July 2004-July 2005; Environmental Educator for SCA DC Urban Crews and SCA DC Urban Tree House, Summers of 2003 and 2002; I earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, University of Notre Dame 2004.
Matthew Greuel
SCA Conservation Internships: Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge - Sasabe, AZ - Spring 2003 – Chasing cactus ferruginous pygmy owls around Southern AZ (and never finding any in three months) as well as pima pineapple cacti and assisting with captive breeding of masked bobwhite quail, as well as other endangered species research. Arches National Park - Moab, UT - Summer/Fall 2003 - Performing all variety of interpretive functions, including staffing visitor center desk and conducting different interpretive programs. San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex - Newark, CA - most of 2004 - Behind the scenes interpretive/visitor services work, i.e. staffing VC desk, training and working with volunteers, assisting with Refuge publications, etc. Currently: I am road tripping through Southern Utah at this exact moment. I just accepted a second season as an interpretive ranger at Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in Danville, Ca.
Christopher Holbrook
I grew up in western Maine and became involved with SCA in 1998, when I served on a conservation crew in Portland, Maine. I went on to serve on two more conservation crews (Grand Teton National Park, WY in 1999; Denali National Park, AK in 2000) before starting college (Northland College, WI) in the fall of 2000. In 2001, I served as a conservation intern at the USGS Western Fisheries Research Center in Seattle, WA. I received a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Maine in 2004, and am now working toward an M.S. in Zoology at the University of Maine.
Sara Swann Hulsey
I served during the summer of my 15/16th birthday on a trail crew in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. I served again as a conservation intern from May-August 2002 in Anchorage, Alaska as the Media Relations Specialist for the Fire Education Corps, then again as a wildlife biologist intern in Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico from May-August 2003. Now I am finishing up my bachelor's degree in history with a minor in psychology, I will graduate in August of this year. I am also kept on my toes by my 15-month old angel, Michaela, our two dogs Rocky and Cocoa, and cat, Maggie. I am very excited to accept this position, as well!
Michael Kirkpatrick
I graduated from Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO, in 2002. I served SCA as team leader for Seeds of Success at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, UT, in 2003; and as intern for the Condor Recovery Program at Pinnacles National Monument, CA, in 2004. My botanical roots have spread throughout ID, NM, UT, and CO, where I have focused mainly on rare plant surveys. I will be working for the Colorado Natural Heritage Program at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve during the summer of 2006. I credit SCA with helping me peel the Allium of service and conservation.
Laura Kuczera
My service with SCA extended from the end of May 2005 to August 22, 2005. I worked as a resource intern with the Resource Management division at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Middlesboro, KY. During this time, I aided the biotech ranger with wetlands monitoring, air quality monitoring, water quality, trail mapping and assessment, and so on. In addition to my normal duties, I took on an independent project for the park, which resulted in a ready-to-print field guide for the caves of the Cumberland Gap area. This field guide is to be used by park staff, researchers, and visiting groups alike. Today I am an Ecology major at Rutgers University, Cook College. I am a fourth year student and am scheduled to graduate this May, 2006.
Daniella “Donna” Ruth Lorincz
SCA has been part of my life since I graduated from college in 2002. I started out leading trail crews through the Pittsburgh office that summer. Building part of the North Country trail in McConnells Mill State Park and Moraine State Park got me hooked. While I was a Field Instructor with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association I was able to obtain my wildland firefighting certification. This sparked my interest in SCA Fire Education Corps and I became a 2003 team member on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon. The following year I moved to the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho to lead my own team. This past year I once again served in Idaho as a Project Leader. I am currently a Natural Resources graduate student at Washington State University working on a thesis about the Nez Perce and fire.
2002 McConnells Mill State Park/Moraine State Park, PA-Crew Leader
2003 Umatilla Indian Reservation-Fire Education Team Member
2004 Nez Perce Indian Reservation-Fire Education Team Leader
2005 Nez Perce Indian Reservation-Fire Education Project Leader
Greta Lyons
Shortly after graduating from college, I had the pleasure of serving as an SCA volunteer at Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona during the spring of 1997. I then joined the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), a federally funded AmeriCorps program based in Denver. Highlights from my time with NCCC include working with the trail crews at Big Bend and Isle Royale National Parks. In the fall of 1998 I began my second SCA internship with the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada. My position involved developing and implementing an outdoor education curriculum for a Tahoe ski resort. My most recent environmental experience was assisting marine biologists with a whale survey of the northern Pacific Ocean for three weeks last summer. Currently I teach fifth grade in northern Michigan. I enjoy life with my husband, Mark, and our golden retriever, Betsy.
Angela Elizabeth Mrozinski
My SCA internship was in the fall of 2004, after I graduated from Grand Valley State University with a BS in Natural Resources Management. I served as a Horticulture Intern at Grey Towers National Historic Landmark in Milford, Pennsylvania. Since leaving PA, I've completed many various internships including a local botanical gardens, where I hope to work again this summer, as well as at a 4H camp in North Carolina. Currently I'm looking into graduate schools for Environmental Policy while I help reopen a beautiful nature center nearby.
Johnathan A. Pepe (John)
I served in North Cascades National Park for the fall season of 2004. I was a part of the trail crew and we mainly worked on a 1,500 foot re-route of the Thunder Creek Trail. We also maintained other trails within the park. During my time at NOCA, I also worked with the Plant Prop division of the park, as well as the Historic Preservation department. I performed a variety of tasks, from gathering wild berries and working with the revegetation project to replacing a cedar shake roof on a barn built in the 1920's. After NOCA, I served with SCA on the Florida National Scenic Trail. I was on a trail crew of about 13 folks and we built 12 miles of trail and a 120ft. footbridge over Eaton Creek. Serving with two different trail crews in two very different terrains taught me much about the many ways to build trail. Now I am back in college at University of South Alabama. I am pursuing a double major in Anthropology and Creative Writing. I am also enrolled in a writing group called Long Ridge Writers Group, where I am getting college credit and learning to market my writing. I plan to fuse my writing and anthropology degrees with conservation somehow, and would like to serve with SCA again.
Annemari Kate Romero
I spent six magnificent months serving at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. My time there wasn't the easiest, there were many obstacles that I overcame, and consequently grew up a lot in the process! I worked in the Visitor Center, at the front desk answering phone calls and talking to visitors in-person. I also roved the marina docks, dealing with blistering heat, as well as checking out amazing scenery! I performed talks around the big relief map of the NRA in the Visitor Center to help visitors get oriented to the area. Another part of my job involved environmental education, traveling to elementary schools to give water safety programs and running field trips to visiting 1st graders. With all this public contact, I of course needed time to research and prepare my programs. Three months later, I've started to take one graduate class at Northern Arizona University. I also volunteer at a local state park, an animal shelter, and am looking for a paying job!
Gary Rowe
I am a 2002 graduate from SUNY Plattsburgh with a B.A. in Environmental Science, with a concentration in Planning and Management. I am also a two time SCA alumnus. In 2004, I served as a member of the Firemon program down in Mescalero, New Mexico. In 2005, I served as a member of the Landfire program and was based out of Yucca Valley, California. I am currently working as an admissions assistant for SCA in Charlestown, New Hampshire.
Emily Rachel Sloane
I had long intended to become involved with SCA when I finally had the opportunity to become a Conservation Intern last summer. From June to November, I worked with the native plant propagation department of North Cascades National Park in northwestern Washington State. Along with a crew of several other SCA volunteers and park employees, I cared for almost 30,000 nursery plants, gathered seeds for future plantings and manually put almost 9,000 trees and shrubs in the ground at a major restoration site. During my days off, I hiked as much as possible, climbed my first glacier-covered peaks, made a batch of blackberry wine and trained for the Seattle marathon. I had expected the landscape to be beautiful; however, the similarly outstanding quality of the people I encountered in that landscape took me by surprise. My supervisor, for example, could maintain an animated, rarely tiresome monologue for over half an hour. He farmed bamboo (native to Southeast Asia) while simultaneously managing a native plant nursery, and the irony of this situation delighted him. He mentored my marathon training and arranged a free ride for me above the Skagit River Valley in his friend’s motorized glider. I felt so at home among him and my other co-workers that I hope to return to the park next summer as a member of its trail crew. In the interim, I am living in Burlington, Vermont, indoor rock climbing, skiing and hiking as time and money permit, brushing up on my French and making pastries at a bakery. I am also looking into potential graduate programs that will allow me to work on natural resource issues overseas with refugee populations.
Monica Bess Spitzer
I served in the on the Tennessee-North Carolina Border of the Smoke Mountains on trail restoration and relocation. We had a bit of a late start because there were complications due to transporting our supplies. However, when we did reach our site it by Silars Bald, it was really beautiful. I was the farthest I had ever been from Civilization, but in a sense, I was also the closest I had been to reality. Right now, I am participating in local community service efforts including the JFB (Junior Fire Brigade) a fire department membership for youth aged 14-18. I am an editor for home school newsletter. I also plan to apply to the NIH biology program this summer. I spend my free time listening to music, roller-blading, swimming, writing, reading, etc.
Jen Stankiewicz
After graduating from Bates College (Lewiston, Maine) in 2002, I rambled on over to the west coast to serve the fall at Redwood National Park in residential environmental education. The following spring and summer I migrated south to Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge as an intern with their field trip program and direct their summer camp. Three years later I am still hugging redwoods in California and teaching outdoor ed to the kids of Silicon Valley. In April I will earn my K-8 teaching credential and am attempting to move to Hawaii or New Zealand.
Jesse Stanley
Three weeks after accepting a Team Leader position with SCA’s Fire Education Corps I had quit my job, packed up my apartment, dumped half my possessions on my friends, and drove across country to my new home in Carson City, NV. I’ve never looked back. I managed to get four SCA internships under my belt before they realized I wasn’t going away and just went ahead and hired me full time. I now live in Vermont and work at SCA’s HQ in the Admissions department as a writer, graphics designer, and Communications jack-of-all-trades.
2002, Fire Education Corps, Team Leader: Carson City, NV
2002, Homestead National Monument of America, NE
2003, Fire Education Corps, Individual Placement: Carson City, NV, Boise, ID, Kernville, CA
2004, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Interagency Fire Center, Boise ID
Carolyn Tallman
I have been on two different crews with the SCA. My first crew was in Voyageurs National Park in the summer of 2004. It was beautiful there. We built bridges, rehabilitated a 5 mile trail, and had a lot of fun! My other crew was in Yosemite National Park during the summer of 2005. Our crew was supposed to be featured in the next issue of a outdoor clothing magazine. (I forget which one.) Unfortunately, it never worked out because the photographers couldn't get a permit because the park was really busy. Our work consisted of removing an entire patch of blackberries because they were evasive to that area. We also rehabilitated a trail there, and helped fertilize a patch of land. As of right now I'm a high school senior, and I'm hopelessly trying to figure out where I'm going to college. At my school I play soccer and I'm involved in a variety of clubs. Other than that I'm just taking in the last bit of high school and wondering where I'm going for my next SCA trip!
 Amy Tripson
I am 17 years old and live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I spent last summer (2005) in the mountains of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. I was stationed on top of Brush Mountain in the historic Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. Spending my summer on an SCA crew changed my life in so many ways. I had an amazing experience and met so many great people. If I could have asked for one thing it would have been to spend more time with them. We truly became a family of equals and no matter how many miles apart we are, that will always remain. I am also involved in swimming and horseback riding and devote a lot of time to both. I have applied for another crew this summer and can only hope it will be as amazing as the first!
Larry Volpe
I came to SCA in 1995 as a junior in the Environmental Studies/Restoration Ecology program at San Jose State University. My major professor is now lead scientist of the South Bay restoration project, the largest of its kind on the west coast. May some future SCA participant be lucky enough to assist in this project. As an “older” college student it was tough to get away and serve a summer with little pay (I served 4 years in the US navy before starting college). As a poor college student I felt I was making a big sacrifice so I told myself that if I didn’t get Alaska I wasn’t going. My stubbornness paid off and I was on my way to Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Central Brooks Range.
As an avid backpacker who loves wilderness and the solitude that goes with it and as a traveler who loves to learn about other cultures, this was right up my alley. Gates is over 8,000,000 acres plus, with no roads and very few trails. It also has a subsistence group of Nunimiut Eskimos living at the park’s northern edge. I spent the summer taking bush flights in and out of the park and canoeing many miles of its rivers. The wildlife viewing, mountain scenery, serenity and fishing beat anything I have ever done in my life right up until this day! With daily sightings of grizzly, sheep, moose, caribou and wolves it was pure heaven! The wildflower, insect, bird and small mammal diversity I experienced alone was incredible. As a wildlife enthusiast and avid nature photographer I was in paradise. I shot over a 1000 photos of slide film in three short months, ran me broke.
My job was mostly public contact in the backcountry making sure visitors knew the rules and were familiar with surviving in such a wild place. I only saw about 12 people all summer in such a massive place. I spent a week in the Eskimo village observing how the natives educate their youth. I was lucky enough to be there when the caribou migration came through the pass. To witness an Eskimo hunt was most rewarding. They were in such a frenzy to see their meat supply be replenished as the beast did not come through the previous year. I will never forget these wonderful people and how nice they treated me regardless of the fact that they are suspicious of government control of their traditional hunting grounds and as an agent of the National Parks I was on “that side.” Another thing I will never forget is the tour of an active gold mine the supervisor of the site gave us park rangers. It opened my eyes to the ugliness and destructiveness that the greed for this precious metal brings to wild places. Unlike the local natives, the local miners made no bones about hiding their contempt for governmental control of our parklands. To them the gold was always located where they weren’t allowed to mine.
The last thing I am most thankful for is the absolutely incredible staff I was fortunate to work with. Their wilderness ethic leaves something to desire and I just hope today’s staff is the same. The whole staff, including the biologists, was all for leaving the wild places as wild as they have always been. Any studies of the park’s animals were done in the least invasive way possible as to not disturb the animals’ natural habits. My backcountry supervisor was an incredible guy who loved being in the wilderness more than anyone else I have ever met in my life. Bob, if you ever read this I hope you are doing well. From USFWS biologist who now runs the Iditarod to my backcountry ranger partner (I miss doing hikes with you Mike) all the folks there left me with many of my fondest memories of spending time with natures most wonderful creations. It now seems that the incessant, pervasive, annoying, nonstop mosquito part was almost a dream.
Today I am working on my 9th year as a fifth grade teacher in San Jose, CA. I work in a predominately low income Mexican-American community with a high percentage of at-risk youth and English Language Learners. I love my job, the community I serve, I love my kids and I love sharing my love for wild places with my students. About one weekend a month I take small groups of students on adventures like river rafting, backpacking, sea kayaking and sledding/cross country skiing trips. I often invite parents and former students as old as 18, many of whom have been on dozens of trips. One former participant is now giving back by helping me lead trips. These adventures are all made possible by the Sierra Club/Inner City Outings. If you are interested in supporting these kinds of endeavors you can contact me or visit our website
Margarete Walden
I first served as an SCA intern during the summer of 2004. I was the YCC Supervisor for the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, Oklahoma. My responsibilities included supervising trail maintenance and park clean-up, as well as providing environmental education to the ten high school students I worked with. This past fall, I was a resource assistant for the US Geological Survey in the Mojave Desert. I was part of a crew that tracked desert tortoises for the Ft Irwin Translocation Plan. I am currently working for the USGS as a continuation of the work I did as an SCA intern.
Christopher John Warren
I have my Bachelors in writing from Green Mountain College located in Poultney, Vermont. While attending school there I was very active in its journalism and theatre programs. My first SCA experience was in a five week high school trail crew in the Colorado Weminuche wilderness. Since then I served twice in the Fire Education Corps; the first was as in its inaugural year as a homeowners liaison and the subsequent year as a GIS/GPS specialist and assistant to the Southwest region coordinator. The latest program I took part in was the Ford Proud Partner Transportation Interpreter Program where I spent two summers in Lowell NHP as a streetcar conductor and historical interpreter.
Elizabeth Jane Williams
I worked on an SCA high school crew in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during the summer of 1998. In the spring of 2004 I took a position as an SCA intern on a California spotted owl project in Yosemite National Park, and I was hired back the following year as a paid crew member. I am currently living in Missoula, Montana and hoping to start a graduate program in Fall 2006 in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Montana.
Wendy Wrangham
I live in the beautiful city of Prague in the Czech Republic where I work as a travel writer and magazine editor. A month after landing in Prague in 2003, I accepted the Media Relations internship with SCA’s Fire Education Corps and by June was in Pocatello, Idaho having been Red Card trained. Three fulfilling months ensued of working with the local community and fire department in educating homeowners and mapping easily-defendable zones during wildland fire occurrence. I then drove my (t)rusty car down to Tallahassee, Florida to begin the first of two three-month trail crew internships with the Florida Trail Association. Time and work permitting, I hope to return to United States and the SCA for another exciting internship with great crew members in beautiful surroundings.
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