The Picket Post #1: Fall 2012

GRADUATE ALUMNI NEWSLET TER

THE PICKET POST Fall 2012, Volume 1: Edition 1

G R A D U AT E M . E D .

PROGRAM

810 State Route 20, Sedro-Woolley, Washington 98284 • (206) 526-2567 • ncascades.org/study

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s the amount of available daylight decreases and the once warm winds change to a crisp cold, we become aware that fall is here. This awareness was heightened as the members of Cohort 11 packed their belongings last month and begun their final two quarters at Western Washington University and the new members of Cohort 12 began their first sessions of Mountain School. It is with this awareness that we reflect on the experiences and growth graduate students have shared during the past year.

As with past cohorts, C11 left their own legacy at the Environmental Learning Center by creating dynamic curriculum, launching an exciting new citizen science project in conjunction with North Cascades National Park, infusing their passion for natural history into their residency, engaging the community to a death match of “hantis” and ensuring that a bottle of red wine was always near at hand.

Hey Alumni!

In March, we celebrated the graduation of Cohort 10 as Pacific Northwest weather blanketed the Learning Center first with snow, then sleet and finally sunshine. Since

North Cascades Institute wants to keep our valued alumni community better connected. We welcome your stories about life after graduate school and how you are making it work in the world. We’d also love to know your updated contact info and current job position, company and location.

Also, please note that we’re planning an alumni reunion at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center for Fall 2013.

Please email Stephanie_Bennett@ncascades.org with any updates you’d like to share!

then the cohort has dispersed. Dave Strich summited Kilimanjaro and Nick Mikula pedaled from Canada to Mexico. Teresa Mealy boarded a boat to Alaska and Scott Davis the first plane to California. Clint Hensley returned to Maine to begin a new environmental education program through the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Elizabeth Penhollow began working on the peninsula on an organic farm while Stephanie Pate toured the country, only to be surprised in Chicago with a marriage proposal by her partner Dennis. CeCe Bowerman began a new position as Development Assistant at PCC Farmland Trust in Seattle. Kate Rinder, Codi Hamblin and I gratefully joined the Institute family as staff.

Every cohort has left their mark on this place and we are excited to see what the eight members of C12 will contribute over the next year of their residency. Their contributions have been felt almost immediately with fall Mountain School in full swing. Unique to this fall’s Mountain School is a six-day visit from a Colorado school. We can only assume that the hard work we have all contributed as instructors over the past 11 years has resulted in Mountain School becoming the nationally recognized program that it is today. I look forward to connecting with you all in the future as we build upon our many talents and contributions over the past years.

All the best,

Stephanie Bennett Graduate Program Coordinator

near hidden lakes peak

John reading to cohort 12 in the historic Stehekin School House

Greetings To All You Masters A bit more than a month ago I returned from the summer quarter culminating backpack with Cohort 12!! Yes, we have been going that long, much to my amazement.

Can it be nearly fourteen years ago I sat down with Gene Myers, Don Burgess, Tracie Johannessen, Wendy Walker and of course Saul Weisberg and started scheming about this residential M.Ed. idea? Can it be that we have been working out of the Environmental Learning Center since 2005? We’ve had our challenges, made various adjustments and now, in my opinion, the program has reached its potential, thanks in no small part to having an Institute Graduate Program Coordinator, first Tanya Anderson and now Stephanie Bennett. An on-site person dedicated to the needs of the resident students has made all the difference. And now, thanks to Steph and to Codi Hamblin (of Cohort 10), we are launching a newsletter.

It’s about time, eh?

I have heard over these years from and about many of you and am looking forward to learning more about where your professional and personal lives have taken you. This last decade has been a challenging one for environmental education due to many things – the Great Recession, the politics of education (No Child Left Behind and teaching to the test foremost), challenges to EE’s identity with the rise of “sustainability education” and much else. But we have kept slogging along and doing what we can. Despite the constant challenges, I think we are making some progress in raising awareness

about our dependence upon the natural world, the need for restraint and the pleasures that come from being outside and wondering at the world in which we live. Our work will never be done but we can have fun doing it and take satisfaction in our achievements.

These years of exploring experiential, place-based, outdoor, ecological education about the environment have been wonderful for me. I plan on teaching at Western Washington University for two more years which will take me to 70 — and 46 years at WWU! At that point, it will be time to turn things over to a younger team. I am hoping to spend these years figuring out how to assure the future of this unique undertaking, and I am very encouraged by our selection of a new Huxley College dean who seems knowledgeable and supportive of our approach. We have exceptional partnerships between WWU, the Institute, the Forest and National Park Services, and those partnerships continues to grow and strengthen in many ways. We are maturing as partners and in our collaboration doing some remarkable work, some of which, I am sure, will be described in this newsletter.

So, I hope all of you are prospering and enjoying yourselves, pushing the environmental education field forward in various ways. I look forward to hearing of your work and to a reunion in the not-too-distant future. My most sincere thanks and best wishes to all of you!

John Miles

Tales from the Mushroom Hunter

by Lee Whitford

W

hen I graduated in 2004, Pauline Hseih created a collage for each member of our cohort. Each one had photos from our graduate school experience and predictions of where we would be in the future. These predictions are a good place to start summing up my life since the grad program: •

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Most likely to be a grandmother—Yes! I have a 20-month-old grandson, Ken. He already has his first mushroom basket and a small collection of children’s books dealing with Northwest wildlife.

Most likely to find a new species of fungi—well, I have found some interesting things that are now being studied, but determination of a new species takes a long time.

Most likely to flip off Saul—I take the 5th on this one but I do “stay in touch” with Saul and North Cascades Institute staff.

I’m living in Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula.

I enjoy the maritime environment with the mountains, woods and fungi so close.

To stay out of trouble, I’m on the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council as alternate education seat. This council features a diverse group of partners including the four coastal tribes, the Navy, commercial shipping and fishing and other government agencies.

I’m also on the board of Feiro Marine Life Center in Port

Introducing Cohort 12

Angeles. This small (3 employees) nonprofit is launching into a partnership with NOAA and the City of Port Angeles to build a new building that will be the cornerstone of the redeveloped Port Angeles waterfront. We’re working on a major capital campaign as well as expansion of the organization. It’s an exciting time to be on this working board!

As far as my pursuit of natural history, I teach for several organizations, including North Cascades Institute and the Jefferson County Land Trust. I’ve also joined the Victoria Natural History Society (part of BC Naturalists) to connect with a larger group of amateur naturalists. Of course, I’m still expanding my knowledge of mycology every year and collect and identify fungi all around the Pacific Northwest.

I stay in touch with many alumni as well as teach beginning mycology for the Fall Graduate Naturalist Retreat. I attend the Capstones at the Learning Center each spring to see what new levels the grad program is reaching.

It’s been 10 years since I graduated. Since then, I’ve watched many grads get married, have babies and join the establishment. I was fortunate to officiate at Megan McGinty’s wedding last fall to Alex Brede. On July 21, John Miles officiated at my daughter Lisa’s wedding. We really are an extended family in so many ways!

To sum it all up, I can’t say enough good things about North Cascades Institute’s M.Ed. program. And somehow, the program keeps getting better and better every year. As I meet more professionals in the field and watch how their careers evolve, I realize how well prepared we all are to become leaders in this exciting field of environmental education and nonprofit leadership. Thank you Saul and John!

Bottom row (L to R)- Cait, Kim, Liza, Sahara, Ryan & Katie (C11) Top Row (L to R) - Hillary, Lindsay, Andrea & John

Life as a Grant Writer Saving Local and Organic Farmland in Washington

By CeCe Bowerman, Cohort 10

I am writing to you from Seattle — not really a “large” big city but the biggest city I have ever called home. Five months have passed since I left the comfortable hamlet of Bellingham, and one year since leaving the remote outpost of Diablo. I never would have imagined myself here and do not envision staying forever. But while I dwell here for now, I try to make the most of it by seeing the natural elements that exist in the Emerald City. I see corvids strutting on sidewalks and elaborate gardens illustrating an appreciation for the natural world. It’s a green city, but a city none the less.

When I graduated from North Cascades Institute’s Graduate M.Ed. program, I decided to pursue fundraising and development in the nonprofit sector. I was lucky to land a position as the development assistant with the PCC Farmland Trust, working to save local, organic farmland forever! Our mission is to “secure, preserve and steward threatened farmland in the Northwest, ensuring that generations of local farmers productively farm using sustainable, organic growing methods.” Check them out if you’re interested in making sure the land where farmers grow organic food exists for future generations in Washington State: www.pccfarmlandtrust.org.

What I love about my job as development assistant with PCC is the detail-oriented work, database management and grant writing. Need I say more? So far, I have begun to understand the importance of communicating the benefits of farmland preservation, especially with our local community, connecting with the people who care

enough about our work to make gifts to the organization whose mission they believe in.

Prior to joining PCC, I was a teacher of the natural world where I saw the benefits of environmental education more directly. It felt good helping inspire children to love to go outside. Both types of work have their merit and necessity. I look forward to moving back and forth between the direct work of environmental education and nonprofit administration throughout my career.

North Cascades Institute is a high-caliber organization with partnerships and connections among other organizations of similar caliber. One of the greatest opportunities I had in the M.Ed. program was working with staff at the Institute and partnering organizations who do the work I want to do, and taking the opportunity to learn as much as possible from them. Professionally, this program allowed me to become a better writer, particularly in the grant world. The residency option provides ample opportunities to write in a variety of forums, many specifically geared toward the work many of us will do for nonprofit organizations in the future.

My time with the M.Ed. program was honestly two of the best years of my life. To be part of a community of inspiring and inspired naturalists—carefully noticing and appreciating the natural world around them—has yielded benefits beyond my professional path. I miss the moss-covered rocks, the color of Diablo Lake in the summer, the sound of thrushes in the morning. I miss seeing the variety of ways to engage people in that wild, out-of-the-way place. I miss my cohort!! I hope more people continue to gain as much from this program as I have. While it is a remote experience, many walk away knowing themselves—both the good and the bad—better than before. Hopefully all of us leave with a greater appreciation for the natural world and a better understanding of how we want to help protect it.

Keep in Touch!

In future issues of our alumni newsletter, we want to include updates on exciting things happening in your life! This could be a vacation you just went on, a new professional position, getting married, having a kid or talking about the great environmental education trip you just led! Photos are welcome too.

Please email Stephanie at Stephanie_Bennett@ncascades.org with any updates you’d like to share with our alumni community!

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