What work do you do and what lessons from Eco Practicum do you apply at your job?
As a consultant, I help solve problems for the Federal government. Eco Practicum helped me develop my communications skills with my peers-a trait very useful in a large consulting firm. Additionally, Eco Practicum developed my passion for agriculture and experimental, hands-on learning. This drew me to work for a firm that has a large presence at the USDA, as well as get involved in initiatives that are student and youth led.

What are the most fulfilling and most challenging parts of what you do?
The most fulfilling part of this job is knowing that your work directly affects people living in this country. The most challenging parts would have to be time management and meeting the client’s, the firm’s and your own expectations.
 
Describe a moment or situation that helped you realize your passion?
Honestly, participating in Eco Practicum really developed my passion and knowledge about the agricultural crisis in this country. It was a great way to supplement my education outside of the classroom. Additionally, the Rocky Mountain class I took really developed my passion for Public Lands Management.
 
What advice do you have for people looking for meaningful work?
Think about what kind of work makes you happy and try to identify what job will enable you to do that. You can also get involved in activities outside of work that will feed your passions-be creative! And there’s no harm in trying something, not liking it and switching jobs. It happens to the best of us.
 
What’s one thing you think everyone should know how to do?
Everyone one should know how to stop a running toilet. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve struggled with this—youtube and wikihow are life savers!

What’s the difference between formal and informal education?
This isn’t the most technical answer, but the biggest difference I’ve observed is that at school, from elementary school through college, even if students like the class, they would still rather not be there. Face it: even in the case of an engaging interesting class, it’s good news when class is cancelled. We have to remember that education as it is formalized and standardized in the United States is deeply ideological, in that it's designed to reflect and recreate the dominant sociopolitical paradigm.  Informal education, on the other hand, is not one formal thing, so its structures reflect the goals of the educators and participants, which makes it a much more varied and creative category.  Informal education is a choice. It requires more conscious buy-in on the part of the students, because they’re called on to participate in their learning in an entirely different way. 

What is learning?
I’m learning a lot about learning from my two year old son. I'm convinced that learning and exploring is our natural state. In fact, we couldn’t survive without this urge to learn. The world around us and within us is just so interesting. We’re naturally called upon to mine it, engage with it using all our many senses, and try to figure it out. Since learning is a survival tool, what and how we learn is deeply impacted by how we survive in our society. Today, in this country, survival is linked so deeply with participation in the economy, that we often don’t see the distinction between the two. So, school teaches us how to participate in this particular economy, in part by stratifying us according to class, and by our ability to sit still and take instruction from authority figures. You didn't just learn math in school, you learned that math is important (more important than farming, for instance), you learned that knowledge was held by some (the teacher, the textbook) and transmitted to others (the students), and that it was the people with the knowledge that had the power to determine how much and how well you learned, and that this series of evaluations (your report card) was a permanent record of your intellectual abilities. WHAT you learn and HOW you learn it are equally important. 

How does Eco Practicum do education?
We’ve pieced together an educational method borrowing principles from critical pedagogy, place-based learning, as well as democratic and experiential education. This means that we focus on deepening understanding through hands-on engagement, and we honor the knowledge and experiences that our participants bring to the table by creating a horizontal classroom, where the person implementing the curriculum is part teacher, part mentor, and part facilitator.

Who’s the best educator you've ever had or worked with?
That’s easy, that would be my partner, Tal Beery. He has an amazing ability to keep calm and confident when things get uncomfortable, and he is extremely observant. He’s creative in his lesson planning, he is versatile in his teaching methodology, and he’s charismatic. There are some things you can teach, and he’s spent a tremendous amount of time learning how to be a great educator, but I also think he was born with a certain talent for teaching.

What is the most useful thing you've recently learned, and how did you learn it?
I feel like I’m learning something new every day – how to be a partner, a mother, an artist, an educator, a decent person … and those lessons generally involve some painful and humbling experiences. But the one distinct useful thing I’ve recently learned is how to roast a whole chicken, and I learned it through a connection with an incredible farmer in the Catskills who gifted me one of his chickens and inspired me to experiment and try something new. It was the best chicken I’ve ever had. 

What work do you do and what lessons from Eco Practicum do you apply at your job?
I currently work as an Energy Advisor for Halco Energy. As an Energy Advisor I meet with homeowners all across Central NY where I provide free home energy audits in collaboration with NYSERDA. From my experience with Eco Practicum, I certainly gained a respect for all parties involved in the effort to decrease our carbon footprint at the local, state and national levels.

What are the most fulfilling and most challenging parts of what you do?
The most fulfilling part of my job is when a homeowner can take full advantage of the numerous opportunities we provide and finally realize the comfort of a warm, energy efficient home. The deep energy retrofits performed on these homes last forever and eventually pay for themselves in energy savings! The most challenging portion of this job is when homeowners only look at renewable energy as a means of saving money. I regularly spend a lot of time explaining the numerous benefits of renewable energy, because although it is a large investment, the benefits largely outweigh the cost.

Describe a moment or situation that helped you realize your passion?
I realized my passion for what I do when I was down south doing something I hated. I was working for a construction company that did not consider sustainability in any part of their process. This is when I began visioning what I wanted to do with my knowledge, passion and drive.

What advice do you have for people looking for meaningful volunteer opportunities?
Follow your heart! Seriously. Although this is one of the biggest clichés, I wouldn’t be enjoying every day of “work” if I didn’t. I hated what I was doing before; I didn’t agree with the company philosophy, so I moved on. I would also say just get out there and try something, go fail at something, because I found that when I was at my lowest I looked to what made me happy and went right after it. 

What’s one thing you think everyone should know how to do?
I think everyone should know how to talk to people, how to socialize. They say it’s not what you know, but who you know. Having the ability to converse and share ideas gets the ball rolling and before you know it you’re on to something you didn’t even know about 5 minutes prior. This can open up a world of opportunity!

"The practical experience I had taught me more in a week than in a semester in college. Everything I learned was very valuable – water treatment, urban farming, green roofs, the list goes on and on."

"Thank you so so much for everything: for the fun, the reflection, the critical thinking, the conversations, and the inspiration."


right back atcha'

Camryn Hellwarth participated in Eco Practicum Catskills last summer. She is currently a student at Sarah Lawrence College where she studies Environmental Science, Food Studies, and Journalism. Her interest in health and food justice led her to become involved with Teens for Food Justice, where she is the Program and Outreach Intern. In addition to teaching ballet at her local dance studio and coaching Learn to Skate classes, Camryn is active in philanthropic work, and volunteers with organizations such as Midnight Run, which delivers food to the homeless, and Dorot, a program where volunteers visit homebound elderly citizens of the Jewish community. 

What work do you do and what lessons from Eco Practicum do you apply at your job? 
I am the Program and Outreach Intern at Teens for Food Justice, a nonprofit that has organized teens to build hydroponic farming systems in a Bed-Stuy elementary school, where volunteers work to educate communities about sustainable, and healthy eating, while provide families with fresh produce from the farm. The experiential learning I was a part of at the Eco Practicum Catskills program taught me the importance of hands-on experience, and how to apply such work in an academic setting, which is what I strive to do through the activities and programs I help to develop at Teens for Food Justice.

What are the most fulfilling and most challenging parts of what you do?
By far, the most fulfilling parts of my work come during the Service Days that we host every month. These events bring the community into our hydroponic farm, where they can take home fresh produce, engage in active and educational games, and learn how to be food justice advocates in their own neighborhood. One of the most rewarding experiences was to work with elementary school kids, and teach them how to use Michael Pollan’s Food Rules to play a game of Good Fridge, Bad Fridge, in which they had to decide which foods were healthy, and which should be thrown out of the fridge. The hours leading up to these events are often the most challenging, because this is when we must materialize all of the activities we have created, and get all of our food and games ready for the families who come visit our farm. 

Describe a moment or situation that helped you realize your passion?
The moments that have made me most aware of what I am passionate about are numerous, diverse, and still occurring. However, I often credit my first spark of interest in food studies to the elementary school lunch table. It is here that I was intrigued by the diversity of food products and the interactions that took place around the aggressive trading and bargaining of goldfish, Kool-Aid, and cheese sticks. More recently, my work with Teens for Food Justice has allowed me to engage with food insecure youth. One example involved a build-your-own-smoothie station, where I was able to blend up fruit smoothies with kale, fresh berries, and flax seeds for kids and their families. The satisfaction I get from bringing kale smoothies to Bed-Stuy families lets me know that my work is taking me in a positive and passionate direction. 

What advice do you have for people looking for meaningful volunteer opportunities?
Get involved in experiences that take you out of your comfort zone, and work with organizations that will support you in these challenging spaces. It is through this process that you will learn the most about yourself and how you can best serve the communities around you to bring about greater change.

What’s one thing you think everyone should know how to do?
We should all know how to decipher between what waste goes into the garbage and what waste goes into the compost. By becoming aware of how much of our garbage is actually food waste, we can begin to realize how important it is to return this waste to the soil. 

What work do you do and what lessons from Eco Practicum do you apply at your job?
I am the Owner & Director of Operations of Blue Earth Compost, Inc. – a residential and commercial food scrap collection and composting service in the Hartford, CT area. At Blue Earth Compost, we provide an efficient and sustainable way for individuals and businesses to divert their food scraps from the waste stream. I manage many different aspects of the company to make sure all of our operations are running smoothly. Eco Practicum taught me how to better communicate and collaborate with all sorts of people. Being raised in the public school system, I never experienced the inclusive dynamic of Eco Practicum in any educational environment. At Blue Earth, I interact with a multitude of different people, from customers to volunteers, on a daily basis and I have been able to use the lessons from Eco Practicum to effectively deal with and collaborate with this wide range of individuals.

What are the most fulfilling and most challenging parts of what you do?
The most fulfilling aspect of my work with Blue Earth Compost is the tangible impact my company has on the community. This may sound odd to some but, every week, when I dump hundreds of pounds of food scraps at a compost facility and not at an incinerator, I feel a true sense of accomplishment and joy. As a young environmental professional, one of my most important goals was to make a measureable impact on the community I lived and worked in, and I have been able to accomplish this through my business. On the flip side, the most challenging aspect of my work is the proper coordination of all the different pieces that make Blue Earth Compost go. I do not have a background or training in running a small business. As a result, I’ve had to learn most of these aspects on the fly and I continue to learn new ones on an ever increasing basis. 

Describe a moment or situation that helped you realize your passion?
This moment occurred at Eco Practicum. Prior to Eco Practicum, I was interested in sustainable urban development. After the program, I knew that I was going to do something that related to the land. It is hard to describe and, most likely, everybody has a different reaction but I personally felt a strong and immediate connection with the Catskills landscape. As I moved on, I felt this same connection to other places where I worked including a small urban lot in the Bronx where I managed a community garden; the New York Botanical Garden where I interned for a summer; and a concrete parking lot underneath the Queensboro Bridge where I composted food scraps with Build It Green!Compost. After returning to Connecticut, this connection, once again, began to materialize and it helps me to complete my work every day. Without Eco Practicum, I don’t know if I would’ve ever realized this connection, so it will always hold a special place for me. 

What advice do you have for people looking for meaningful work?
STICK WITH IT! I graduated from Fordham University in May of 2013 and I did not begin working full-time for Blue Earth Compost until April of 2014. Although I got discouraged along the way, I never completely gave up and through this perseverance, I was able to find the job that I do today. The advice I have for job seekers is the same advice I received during this time: don’t be afraid to reach out to people in your desired profession and ask them how you can follow in their footsteps. This kind of meeting is less nerve-racking than an interview and provided me with valuable information on how to break into the environmental field. For example, I met and volunteered with Blue Earth’s previous owner for three months before moving up and purchasing the company. Don’t get overly discouraged, keep plugging away and try to make as many connections as possible and something good will come.

What’s one thing you think everyone should know how to do?
Everyone should know how to take criticism and use it to their benefit. As part of my work at Blue Earth Compost, I manage all customer service and relations. In doing so, I deal with any issues and complaints from my customers. If I was not able to properly deal with these situations, I can confidently say that Blue Earth would be nowhere near where it is today. These situations have made me a better owner and have made my company stronger and more efficient. Know how to take and utilize criticism and you’ll be a step ahead of the pack.

Tell us about your experience in Thailand: how did you get to do it? What did you learn?
In early July, with support from the Cynthia Crocco Spector ’74 and Sherman David Spector Fellowship, I traveled to Tha-Tum, a farming community in northeastern Thailand. Tha-Tum is located in Surin, known as “The Elephant Province.” Elephants had helped their owners earn income in the logging industry; when logging was outlawed, the owners struggled to care for their animals and earn a living. I lived and worked near a farm and elephant study center that works with the community to create sustainable economic development and a humane environment for its elephants. 

What are the most fulfilling and most challenging parts of what you did there?
Looking back I really feel like I made a difference in Tha-Tum. Being there a month I was able to develop really special relationships with the people of the village, who were all so grateful for what I was doing. I am still in contact with a lot of the Thai people that I worked with and think part of me will always be in Thailand. The most challenging part of the experience was dealing with the culture shock. Societal norms are so different from what we find in the United States. In Thailand, it is completely normal for a family of four to ride around with no helmets on a motorbike, or for people to walk around the street with no shoes on, but if you point your bare foot at someone or pat their head people will look at you in disgust. You definitely have to be open minded when traveling. I was there for a month, with no hot water, electricity or any idea what kind of meat I was putting in my mouth. It was a very humbling experience that opened my eyes to the challenges people outside of my "first world bubble" face. These people have next to nothing, yet they are always smiling and enjoying life, I wish more people lived like this. 

What lessons from Eco Practicum did you apply in this new program?
Working on the educational farm during my time at Eco Practicum gave me a great advantage in the village and I was able to apply many of the techniques that the Eco Practicum farm educator, Benno, had taught me when I was helping plant and harvest the elephants food. I was also able to share and cook many of the great recipes the kitchen manager, Andrea, taught us to the people I lived with, which they absolutely loved! 


How have your out-of-the-classroom experiences affected your experience at school?
I feel like both my experiences at Eco Practicum and Thailand this past summer have affected me a great deal in the classroom. They were both such unique experiences that have allowed me to contribute to class discussions in a way that my other classmates cannot. No one else at my school can say that they have toured the fracking infrastructure Dimock, PA with an citizen journalist or have gotten to dive head first into a tank full of fish in an aquaculture center. I am constantly referencing the different people we met and the places we went in the Catskills. As for Thailand, I am constantly being asked questions about the country and what I was doing there. I think I will forever be remembered at Sage as “The Elephant Girl”. 

What’s one thing you think everyone should know how to do?
There is something to be said about knowing how to travel by yourself. When I first told people I was hopping a plane to Thailand and staying there for a month, they thought I was insane. Sure I was a bit scared at first, but once I met up with my group and started volunteering, I was glad I had gone on my own. I was able to learn a lot more about myself, force myself to meet new people and I am confident that I could successfully travel somewhere else in the future on my own and be fine. Another great life skill that can be very valuable is the ability to assimilate. I found that the foreigners who tried to adapt to the Thai culture were much more welcomed than those who refused to give up their home countries' ways. The Thai people are so friendly and more than willing to share their culture and my experience became so much more meaningful when I started acting more native and speaking their language.

What work do you do and what lessons from Eco Practicum do you apply at your job?
I am the CSA and farm manager at Spoutwood Farm which includes a wide variety of responsibilities with the main focus on organic growing practices and distributing to members and local buyers. Eco Practicum fueled my passion in a way that empowered me to continue learning about how to grow my own food while challenging myself to develop a more holistic and eco-friendly lifestyle.
The lessons and experiences I enjoyed with Eco Practicum have helped to guide my journey to working here at Spoutwood.  I still apply the information I learned, the realities I witnessed, and the emotions that surrounded all of it. 
 
What are the most fulfilling and most challenging parts of what you do?
The most fulfilling part is the access to local, fresh, and Certified Naturally Grown produce that we provide to surrounding communities through our CSA, stores, and restaurants. The thought of providing nutritious food, while also preserving and improving the health of our soil and ecosystem is refreshing in a world where agriculture can be so damaging to our environment. The most challenging parts are relying on lots of manual labor, finding ways to keep our products as fresh as possible for our customers, preserving the harvests, and finding the right markets for our products.

Describe a moment or situation that helped you realize your passion?
After leaving the Catskills having experienced a whole lot in three weeks, I immediately immersed myself in actions and interests that were sparked in my mind and heart. I remember digging my first garden ever the morning after I returned home. I felt this new connection with nature that I had to be a part of because of how attached I had become to its positive energy and wonderful possibilities. I realized my passion was to continue developing this cultural and spiritual relationship with the natural world that connects all of us in many ways. 

What advice do you have for people looking for meaningful work?
Anyone looking for meaningful work should do just that; find something meaningful that matters to you. Follow your dreams and imagine the person you strive to be. Think about the possibilities of your lifestyle changes and how your career might play a role in determining those. I interviewed a wise professor from England once during a project for an anthropology class on the culture of work in America. I will never forget how she mentioned that most students she was contacted by after graduation having trouble finding work were the ones that were too picky about finding their perfect "dream job." She gave me great advice when mentioning that there are so many gateways into your desired field. You have to accept that flexibility is essential, and if you do not make sacrifices you may even miss out on those special paths and journeys that could lead to ideal positions later in life. 

What’s one thing you think everyone should know how to do?
I think everyone should know how to acquire some type of food, or at least know how to preserve food, by themselves, and for themselves and other families throughout their communities. Any aspect of the skills required to grow and raise our own food, harvest wild edible and/or medicinal plants, hunt or fish, and preserving by fermentation, canning, dehydrating, drying, etc. are so important for developing a lifestyle that is deeply connected to food. This passion for me is essential to developing a better lifestyle because it provides a connection to nature in a way that demonstrates how connected your health and survival is to the health of your food and surrounding environment.

Bridget Johnson participated in Eco Practicum Catskills in its pilot summer. After graduating from Rutgers University with a degree in ecology and natural resources, she worked as a plant biology field technician in South Carolina. Today, Bridget is an Americorps volunteer in Montana where she's working on community garden projects in neighborhoods struggling with poverty.  

What do you do and what lessons from Eco Practicum do you apply?
I am currently an Americorps VISTA (Volunteer In Service To America) serving a community garden project for members of the low-income community in Billings, Montana. For the past year, I have been building capacity for the project by strengthening its garden management, volunteer coordination, fundraising efforts, and education programs. From Eco Practicum, I took away a stronger appreciation for small-scale agriculture and a more developed sense of social and environmental responsibility. Eco Practicum contributed to my desire to find a way to link my interests in sustainable food production and community service, which led me to Americorps.

What are the most fulfilling and most challenging parts of what you do?
The most fulfilling aspects of my Americorps service have been working with wonderful people, helping them grow their own food, and learning about the value of community. Most challenging has been the effort to ensure the sustainability of my project. The goal of VISTA is not only to make a difference in a short amount of time; it also aims to make sure that the difference is lasting and and continues to impact the people it serves. This year of volunteering has given me a deeper appreciation of many of the challenges facing nonprofits, local food production, and service work.

Describe a moment or situation that helped you realize your passion.
In college, I was fortunate enough to be able to work for a pollination ecology research lab. I helped with a particular study looking at how different agricultural land management practices influence native pollinators, particularly native wild bees. It was inspiring and humbling to learn about the vital role these creatures play in our ecosystems. It was also sobering to realize the ways in which human activity can negatively impact that crucial relationship. This experience solidified my passion for ecology. I love ecology because it forces me to see the world as a web of connections, to be more aware of my role in it, and to try to be a positive influence in that web. I hope to attend graduate school in the near future to further understand ecological connections like these and work to protect them.

What advice do you have for people looking to do meaningful work?
To some extent, “meaningful work” is subjective. It could mean farming in socially and environmentally sustainable ways. It could mean working for an organization with a mission you strongly believe in. It could mean raising children to care about treating others and their environment well. I would advise people to be curious, be critical, remain open, and discover their own definition of “meaningful” and actively pursue it. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”

What’s one thing you think everyone should know how to do?
I think everyone should know how to connect with his or her local community. Volunteering is one great way to do that.

How would you persuade people to support deer hunting in the Catskills? 

White-tailed deer are an integral component of our landscape, and especially so in the Catskill Region. Keep in mind that the Catskill Forest Preserve was created in 1896 in response to the decimation of the forest during the tanning industry. Trees were wantonly cut down for their bark, which was a key component in the tanning process. Old pictures from that era show a decimated forest, and the today’s century old Forest Preserve lacks biodiversity. Old growth forests invariably have little, if any understory, and accordingly there is a lack of food for deer at the ground level.  When deer in these areas use up their body fat reserves they suffer from chronic malnutrition, and ultimately an agonizing, lingering death. I have spent many winter days on snowshoes in the Catskills monitoring deer survival; Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress. 

It is far better to balance deer numbers at a lower level in areas like the Catskills, commensurate with legal hunting, than to have deer suffer a cruel and agonizing death by starvation in hard winters.  To do otherwise is poor animal husbandry. 


How has the field of wildlife biology changed over the past few decades ?  

Many changes to the science of wildlife management have occurred in the last few decades. Far and away the biggest change has been an evolution from the traditional management of individual species to a greater and broader emphasis on biodiversity at the landscape scale.  By having a better understanding of the dynamics of wildlife species, we have a clearer understanding of the interactions within and limitations of the ecosystem.

 
Describe the moment you realized your passion ?    

I distinctly remember sitting in a 7th grade science class in 1961 and watching a filmstrip about researchers in Wyoming capturing and tagging deer and grizzly bears. As a person whose family lived in the boondocks in NYS, I spent considerable time afield with nature and wildlife species. The realization came to me that this could actually be a one’s life profession. I followed that dream and after high school, I enrolled in the University of Wyoming. It was an excellent school, with a solid program in wildlife management. I’ve never looked back or had any regrets. 
 

What advice do you have for people looking for meaningful work in the Wildlife profession ? 

Find a college program that offers a well-rounded curriculum in  wildlife management, and don’t shy away from “grunt jobs” or those often boring opportunities that will expand your repertoire of wildlife management skills. As a wildlife biologist, you need to be adept in the field and have a set of skills that does not limit you or narrowly define your expertise.  You will spend time at desk or a laboratory, but you will also have many opportunities to learn things in a classroom that has no roof.  
 

What’s one thing you think that everyone should know how to do ? 

There are two sets of skills that field biologists should have, especially those whose duties include a departure  from the beaten paths. 

1. GPS and/or compass and map reading skills are paramount. Traveling off the beaten path becomes much simpler when you know your precise location, and even more importantly, where you want to go.

2. Always expect the unexpected when you are in the field. A well-stocked survival kit, sufficient and appropriate clothing, a basic knowledge of First Aid and the ability to communicate are key while you are afield in the great outdoors.