How have you translated professional
opportunities, classes, or life experiences into your work?
My favorite Transcendentalist advocated
for life being “a journey, not a
destination.” With a bachelors degree and one year of teaching
added to my resume,
this is only the beginning! I have the drive to master any
discipline I decide, but why choose just one? With such vast
opportunities I continue my quest for knowledge, and with the aid of
professional development and higher education my journey is destined
to make a difference!
I contribute much
of the recent improvements made to my pedagogical and environmental
approaches to my experience with Laurel Clark's Earth Camp for
Educators, a collaboration of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and
the University of Arizona College of Science which provided over 90
hours of professional development. From these workshops, I tweaked
my philosophy on teaching to always include an exploratory piece.
All of my lesson plans will be developed with whole-body learning in
mind and simulate real-life scientific approaches. Learning about
science will be applicable to my students' personal lives while
results of experiments will call for action.
With respect to
human relations, I have come to value networking with like-minded
individuals who share my passions for the Earth, her people, and her
sciences. Through these critical contacts lie the bridges needed to
explore opportunities in evolving my personal doctrine, content
knowledge and communication skills.
Every life
experience fuels my desire to make a real change, so fittingly
Emerson will have the last words: “Without ambition one starts
nothing. Without work one finishes nothing.”
How do
you think this experience will benefit your personal life,
professional life and your community?
As a child I spent all of my free time
outdoors collecting rocks and raising plants from seeds. Twenty
years later my favorite necklace is my Azurite rock, I have a tattoo
of a tree on my back, and love organic food. The point of this
little anecdote is that I will always have a spiritual connection to
nature and a deep yearning to be a part of this movement in saving
our Earth. The opportunities Earth Expeditions offers ignite my soul
and I cannot think of a better way to spend the next three summers.
My passions guide me in fulfilling my
purpose, which connect personal with professional. I am on a journey
to search out jobs which are inclusive of both. The Global Field
Program will assist in this quest by providing opportunities to work
on meaningful, long-term goals. Eventually the GFP will be a
linchpin in attaining my aspirations: first, to be an active
participant in environmental education, and second, to become an
entrepreneur in the field of sustainability.
Along with personal and professional
contributions, the GFP will provide means to make a difference in the
last integral part of my life—community. Through a well-rounded
awareness of our surrounding ecosystems and the vital elements that
affect biodiversity, I will gain the background knowledge needed to
dedicate my work to promoting conservation. Through my adventures
with Earth Expeditions I will attain essential tools needed to engage
with local communities and deepen public interest in science and
conservation.
