Sarika Khanwilkar is a Student Conservation Association alumnus and currently a PhD student in the Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B) department at Columbia University. She works closely with Pooja Choksi, a fellow PhD student, doing research in central India. They wrote about their latest summer below:
Every year, SCA provides training, tools and projects that place motivated teens and young adults in the field to effect changes great and small. How do we measure the effects? Sometimes its through decreased CO2 levels or by the tons of trash collected or in the number of trees planted. Our success is also measured by the lessons learned, the perspective gained and the lives we transform—today and into the future. Often when the SCA project is over, the success story is just beginning. Take a look at some of our most recent accomplishments.
Posted by Cecilia Aleman | Tuesday, October 29, 2019
America’s National Parks have always been home to wildlife species, plants, water bodies, and natural wonders of many kinds. But these are not the only inhabitants of countless outdoor spaces across the country. For years, both hikers and park rangers have reported and witnessed spooky encounters with spirits, unexplained events,...
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Friday, October 25, 2019
Amber Flowers is a bat monitoring intern at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. With Halloween on the horizon, we just had to ask what it’s like to hang around with bats. (See what we did there?)
SCA: So what does a bat monitor actually do?
Amber: My job is to hike...
Posted by Lukas Miller | Friday, October 18, 2019
SEED BALL EVENT AT McCOLL ELEMENTARY MIDDLE SCHOOL
Between October 18 and 19, SCA worked alongside Domtar employees to host two separate events in Bennettsville, SC. The weekend kicked off with Employees from the Marlboro Mill and Tatum Converting Center helping SCA Community Ambassadors to host a seed ball quick touch...
Education, People, Volunteer Opportunities
Posted by Lara Dyan Fornal | Friday, October 18, 2019
(Pictured above: SCA Gulf Corps crew members ripped up a dilapidated boardwalk that ran through a coastal pine savanna on Dauphin Island, AL. Fire-certified members helped burn the area and then members rebuilt this 1,000-foot-long boardwalk. See more amazing tansformations below.)
Last year SCA members improved more than 3,000 miles of...
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Tuesday, October 15, 2019
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...
Posted by Lukas Miller | Saturday, October 12, 2019
We had the opportunity this October to work with one of the Student Conservation Associations longtime partners, Domtar, a paper manufacturer with an office located in Kingsport, TN. On October 12, we worked with volunteers from the Kingsport Paper Mill, and Ridgefield’s Converting Center, at Warriors’ Path State Park. In...
by Lou Lunte, SCA alumnus
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Tuesday, September 17, 2019
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…
Susan and...
Posted by Staff | Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Photos and information provided by Kayla Silva, an SCA intern at Cumberland Island National Seashore. Note: Please do not handle sea turtles. Only those with permits (like Kayla) can do so.
Cumberland Island National Seashore consistently has the most sea turtle nests of any beach in Georgia. Miles
...Animals & Wildlife, Coasts & Water, Endangered Species, Parks
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Wednesday, September 11, 2019
At first, it may sound counter-intuitive. I mean, to forge a more inclusive conservation community, does it really make sense to exclude roughly 50% of the population?
SCA has fielded a female-only conservation crew in and around Chicago every year since 2013. The women, eight-to-12 in number between the ages of...
Posted by Staff | Sunday, August 18, 2019
By Hannah Long, SCA’s Program Coordinator for the Hudson Valley Corps.
Every year, thousands of students from New York Harbor to Troy collect and share scientific information to see how their piece of the Hudson River fits into the larger estuary ecosystem. The SCA’s Hudson Valley...
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge
As summer internships go, combing the beaches of Cape Cod is not a bad gig. That’s why Crystal Bradley, a 19-year-old from Kentucky, jumped at the opportunity to serve at Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge in Chatham, MA.
There was just one problem.
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Monday, August 12, 2019
by David Kurapka, SCA 1980 (Acadia National Park) and 1982 (Assateague Island National Seashore)
For most people, the month of August brings to mind lazy hot days, lying on the beach, or perhaps a barbecue with friends. For me, it reminds me of counting least terns, tracking ponies, and...
Posted by Staff | Wednesday, August 7, 2019
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...
Adventures, Diversity, Parks, People
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Wednesday, August 7, 2019
“It’s pretty cool to say I work at the Arch,” notes St. Louis native Sean Carey. “Most people say, ‘Wait, what?’”
There have been a lot of changes lately at Gateway Arch National Park – including its designation. Last year, the former Jefferson National Expansion Memorial was upgraded to...
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Tuesday, July 16, 2019
SCA and the Girl Scouts first teamed up in 2016 to create more outdoor experiences for girls. Last year, SCA-led programs in eight Girl Scout councils engaged more than 18,000 girls in nature-based programming. This year, the number of participating councils has doubled to 16 and the impact will
...Posted by Emerson Gaziano | Tuesday, July 9, 2019
This is a guest post by Pipa Elias, a member of SCA’s Alumni Council, and we post it on July 16 — 50 years to the day after Apollo 11 launched on its historic lunar mission…
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon...
Posted by Emerson Gaziano | Monday, July 8, 2019
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...
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Monday, July 1, 2019
As the visual information intern at the National Parks of New York Harbor, Miller Bradford worked to connect and engage online visitors with the historic and cultural significance of the area’s attractions.
“Together our 11 sites, which include the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Alexander Hamilton’s final home, and the...
Posted by Kevin Hamilton | Monday, July 1, 2019
by Kevin Hamilton, SCA Communications Staff
When I was a kid, no attraction seized my imagination like Mount Rushmore: high in the sky, larger than life, unaffected by time. That sense of wonder has never waned and, in May, when business took me to South Dakota, I jumped at the chance...