Stuart Wilkins

This will be my second time working for the SCA and my anticipation is at an all-time high. I grew up in West Texas and Coastal South Carolina and spent all my summers in either Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau or Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. I should be entering my junior year at Clemson University, but I am taking this year off to join the Golden Valley Crew in the Mojave Desert. The option to trade in my textbooks for work boots and dirt could not have sounded more appealing. The Mojave has always had my interest, so when the SCA came-a- knocking, I came-a-running. Field experience that could foster my environmental education sounds so nice to me, the choice came naturally.

Conservation is an important cause to me. So many of the places I cherish are threatened and giving back to an area that needs help means a lot to me. This experience will provide me with opportunities to build friendships and push myself to my physical limits. Along with experience comes wisdom and happiness. The people I will meet will have numerous characteristics to admire and learning from them will be a privilege. Not to mention that we will be in one of the most incredibly beautiful regions of the country. This opportunity seems surreal at times and I am honored to have been selected to this crew.