by Tony Gurzick
Do you have a vocation? Not just a job you have or a role you play in your life but a true calling?
I count myself blessed as I found my vocation, in part, through the SCA and have been able to pursue it as a career for over 30 years.
Lou Lunte has spent his career in the environmental field and for the past 30 years has been deputy state director of The Nature Conservancy in Boise, Idaho. In April, he returned to SCA to serve on our Alumni Council. This is just one of his many SCA stories…
SCA began fielding Native American crews at Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona in 2011. Canyon de Chelly, located on Diné, or Navajo, tribal lands, is a vast expanse of 800’ precipices, jaw-dropping cliff dwellings, and prehistoric rock art. In fact, there are more archaeological artifacts at this site than any other in the National Park system.
A path often taken by SCA Alumni is to pursue a career outdoors with the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or other agency. That is amazing and we value all the hard work our alums do to preserve, protect, and educate others about our nation’s public lands. We were curious about the varied career paths taken by our alumni.
A path often taken by SCA Alumni is to pursue a career outdoors with the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or other agency. That is amazing and we value all the hard work our alums do to preserve, protect, and educate others about our nation’s public lands. We were curious about the varied career paths taken by our alumni.
What do Tinker Air Force Base, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and Delaware State Parks have in common? Each place encouraged and empowered Riley Hays in discovering her passion to inspire people to love parks and the great outdoors, and started her own love of Visitor Interpretation at parks! Riley Hays is a three-time SCA alum serving with us in different internships between 2012-2014.
Photo of original wood creation by Matt Gang, SCA Alumni
A guest blog from an SCA Alumni Council Member, Nancy Fernandez
Climate change is a polarizing turn of phrase.
A guest blog from an SCA Alum, Lauren Traylor
After completing my degree in the arid southwest of Colorado, I was looking for a change in scenery when I found my SCA intern position at the Franklin Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York. The Eastern Deciduous Forest seemed like the change I was looking for, and working at the historic rose garden sounded dreamy for a plant-loving gardener like me.
Before I began my first position with Student Conservation Association as a five-month member of the Massachusetts AmeriCorps Team, I had recently graduated from college in western Pennsylvania as a music teacher and was working part-time as a lifeguard and lifeguard instructor. I was working multiple jobs - none of which fully satisfied me. I told my parents that I was moving to Hawley, Massachusetts to make boulders fly, build hiking trails, and live in a tent for the summer. In those five months, I learned how to use traditional hand tools, learned basic carpentry skills, furthered my
SCA/AmeriCorps provided me something I consider priceless, and something that helped launch my career. SCA/AmeriCorps provided me what I call ‘dirt time’.
May 10, 2015 was supposed to be the day I walked across a stage in a cap and gown with my classmates to celebrate ourselves and our hard work over the last four years.
“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.” -Edward Abbey
Danielle Alling served with SCA as a Crew Leader in Yellowstone National Park in 2017. She knows the importance of our public lands and how they enrich everyone’s lives. Danielle recently spent 33 days out on the Hayduke and wanted to share her experience to inspire fellow hikers and outdoor enthusiasts!
Popular culture and common myths perpetuate a fear of these misunderstood animals. They are more closely related to primates than rats and mice, they aren’t all rabid, and they don’t like to mess with humans. Bats want to do their own thing and be left alone. There’s no real reason to be scared of them.
Bats, on the other hand, have many reasons to be afraid. The challenges they face are enough to terrify any creature.
Samuel Merring, a seasonal interpretative ranger at the Stanislaus National Forest in northern California, develops and leads nature programs and guided walks around the forest’s picturesque Lake Alpine reservoir. What makes this all the more impressive is that Merring, who just completed his second summer on the job, is still in college, a senior at Grand Valley State University in Michigan majoring in natural resource management.
It’s no secret that pollinators are in trouble. Many bee and butterfly species across the country are struggling to survive. And in some cases, there’s not even enough data to figure out next steps to help them. That’s where SCA pollinator interns come in!
Over the summer, Simon Doneski and Robin Glefke worked with the USFWS Habitat and Population Evaluation Team (HAPET) as biological science technicians to survey pollinators in North Dakota.
We recently asked our alumni to tell us their SCA stories, and did they ever! We were so moved by what they had to say that we want to start sharing them with you. Each month we will add a new one as well as link to those that have been highlighted on our social media feeds. Check back often to learn more about what your fellow alums had to say about there SCA experience and time since.
As a history major at Loyola University New Orleans, Peter Winfrey didn’t expect his career would lead him to the National Park Service (NPS). He definitely didn’t think it would take him to the largest and one of the wildest states in the country: Alaska.
Located on the southern tip of Florida, the Everglades National Park – a World Heritage Site, International Biosphere Reserve, Wetland of International Importance, and a specially protected area under the Cartagena Treaty – is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live side by side.
At the moment, the land owned by Elder Pyatt in Beattie, Oregon is covered by juniper trees and rocks. But it won’t be for long. Pyatt, a Student Conversation Association alum and Iraq War veteran, has big dreams for his 40 acres: to turn them into a flourishing lavender farm.
