Environmental Studies and International Relations and Global Affairs major

Service work has had a huge impact on my life, starting before my time at Eckerd, and continuing since then in a variety of ways. While at Eckerd, I participated in a Spring Break service trip to Alaska in my senior year. It was one of the first trips of its kind, and I am so thrilled to see the program continues! This trip, including a week of service at 4-5 different agencies between Anchorage and Seward opened the door to an amazing world. Alaska is gorgeous, and offers so much to environmental studies majors like myself. During the spring break trip, we visited the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Soldotna, AK. We travelled out in the middle of a snow storm down some long, winding roads to a moose research facility on the refuge to do some fence repair work that would keep the captive moose safe from the wolves that frequent the area. I was left with a real feeling of accomplishment, and a deep love for the land I was working on that day. I knew I would find a way to return to Alaska and the Refuge after college.

Fast forward past graduation to that next summer. I got a Student Conservation Association (SCA) volunteer position at the Kenai Refuge working in the visitor center. Three months were still not enough time in Alaska, so I returned the next year for a longer environmental education SCA position. During that year, I ended up meeting a great biologist working at the Refuge. I also got a great job working as a lead educator at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska (a position that my volunteer work qualified me for). In 2006, I married that biologist and in 2008 we had our first child. Service work not only awakened a sense of purpose in my life as a college student, but it paved the way to a wonderful life, including introducing me to my husband and new hometown: Soldotna, Alaska!