Welcome to Summer Camp 2013! The counselors arrived today for their first day of staff orientation, pumped to start a summer of fun in the outdoors! Here's a sneak preview of our camp staff this year.
Courtney
Courtney graduated from Delaware Valley College in 2011 with a B.S. in Conservation and Wildlife Management. She is originally from Maryland and moved to Massachusetts this month! She really enjoys working with children and educating about the environment and the magical world of nature that surrounds them every day. After graduation, Courtney worked as a naturalist and camp counselor at a park in Maryland. Since then she has been conducting field studies on waterfowl, songbirds, butterflies and wild game. She hopes to bring to summer camp what she learned during her time in the field. In her spare time, Courtney enjoys riding her horses, who have unfortunately have not made the trip North yet. She also likes hiking, sharpening her birding skills and learning the differences between the ecosystems in Maryland and Massachusetts. She hopes to start gardening and to get back into photography during some of her spare time this summer. She is very excited to meet all the camp families this summer!
Corrin
The daughter of a fisheries biologist and a marine biologist, Corrin grew up with a natural exposure and interest in the environment around her. She and her sister spent their free time in imaginative play in the woods and stream around their home, where Corrin developed a specific interest in catching bugs and amphibians and reptiles (to her sister's dismay and her mother's delight). Towards the end of her college experience, Corrin became increasingly interested in gardening and the local, small-scale organic agriculture scene. After several farm stays of her own, she began to see a need to inspire environmental and local values in communities all over America. She began volunteering with the Farm Education Collaborative's various farm-based preschools and homeschool groups, and has since spent two years in various volunteer and internship positions working with farm-based and environmental education. She is very excited to begin work with the Hitchcock Center!
Joanna
Joanna recently graduated from UMASS Amherst with a degree in Environmental Education and Social Awareness. She is a firm believer that a love of nature should start young through educational and personal experiences. Joanna grew up spending most of her time outdoors, regardless of the weather, enjoying the acres of conservation land near her home. Because of this, she developed a connection with nature she enjoys sharing with others today. As she grew older, she started working at local nature camps and conservation areas to encourage others to create a similar connection. Excited to join the summer camp staff, Joanna is currently pursuing her first ever veggie garden and has recently adopted four chickens - 2 chicks and 2 hens.
Alex
Alex grew up in the Boston area and moved to Amherst for college, where he attended UMASS Amherst. He graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Biology and proceeded to work in the field. His main focus as a biology major was animal behavior and ornithology. Previously, Alex worked for many summers with the Milton Community School system on the south shore of Massachusetts. Since graduating, Alex's work has included a hawk migration study or "hawk watch" in Westchester, NY, assistance with large scale warbler research projects in western Mass, and volunteer work with the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. He is an outdoor enthusiast and enjoys hiking, fishing, photography and of course, bird watching.
