The Picket Post #4

GRADUATE ALUMNI NEWSLET TER

THE PICKET POST Winter 2014 Volume I: Edition IV

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

A hearty welcome to Joshua Porter, the Institute’s new Graduate Program Coordinator!

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or the past 20 years, he’s coordinated, developed and taught field-based programs from Alaska to Patagonia to Puget Sound. Since earning a M.S. from the Audubon Expedition Institute, Joshua has been teaching undergraduate courses for the Wild Rockies Field Institute and, more recently, as adjunct faculty in the Ecological Teaching and Learning M.S. program at Lesley University.

“The North Cascades became my home while attending Evergreen State College and working as a climbing ranger in North Cascades National Park,” Joshua explains. “I’m happy to be back in this familiar landscape, engaged in an organization so committed to conservation, education and illuminating connection to place.”

Returning from the winter naturalist retreat with C13 to Mount Rainier National Park, Joshua reflected, “Seeing this cohort make a winter camp together and spend the night in a snow shelter revealed how cooperative they are, even amidst stormy adversity!”

“It is clear that the students and alumni engaged in this M.Ed. program represent a tight knit network of incredibly committed educators,” Joshua reflects. “ I look forward to meeting more alumni and invite one and all to be in touch and stay involved.”

joshua on the winter naturalist retreat with C13 on Mount Rainier.

C13 Winter Retreat

Feel free to reach out to Joshua anytime at joshua_porter@ncascades.org or (206) 526-2567.

Outreach Award

This year we are inviting our alumni and past staff to help us recruit aspiring educators for our next cohort. If you know someone who would be an outstanding candidate for our M.Ed. program, we are asking you to encourage them to apply. If a candidate you recommend is accepted and enrolls in the program, you will receive a $200 Outreach Award.

Just have the candidate write that they were recruited by you in their residency application and then you submit an email with the name(s) of the student(s) you recruited to joshua_porter@ncascades.org.

2014 Schedule May 10-11 or 17-18: Exploring Yellow and Jones Islands 16-17: Sourdough Speaker Series:

The Galloping Gourmet 17: Bill McKibben at WWU 17-18: Sourdough Speaker Series:

Mountain Photography and Microbrews 23-25: Printmaking with Ink and Watercolor 30- 6/1: Learning Center Stewardship Weekend June 6-8: Spring Birding 13-15: Wild Eats on Lopez Island 20-22: The Artful Map Nature Journal &

Landscape Watercolors 27-29: In the Company of Corvids July 6: Discovering Hidden Cinder Cones and

Crater Lakes of Mount Baker 11-13: Lichens 20: Urban Dragonflies with Dennis Paulson August 1-3: Poetry in the Wild 8-10: Ecology of Ponds and Lakes 9-11: Geology Cross-Section North Cascades 10-11: Citizen Science Bio Blitz: Dragonflies 14-17: Beats on the Peaks 17-18: Citizen Science Bio Blitz: Maple Loop 21-22: Citizen Science Bio Blitz: Butterflies 23-24: Field Sketching at Padilla Bay September 14: Citizen Science Bio Blitz: Snake Count 20-21: Hawk Watching Over Lake Chelan 26-28: The Budding Naturalist 101 28: Street Smart Naturalist Family Getaways: July 4-6, 18-20, 25-27; August 15-17, 30-Sept 1.

Base Camp: Dates vary, please visit ncascades.org/basecamp Skagit Tours: Diablo Lake Boat Tours and Skagit Power Tours and Newhalem Walking Tours, July 3 - September 15.

Information and registration for all of these programs and more at www.ncascades.org/get_outside

Post-Graduate Adventures in Job-Land

by Brian Stafki

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was part of North Cascades Institute’s Graduate M.Ed. Program third cohort. I can say things like, “We didn’t even have a Learning Center to live in — we just camped in the woods,” or “We were the guinea pigs.” I love introducing myself when I see members of the newest cohort at community events, fairs or conferences. We all share that common bond of having gone through the trials and tribulations of graduate school at Western Washington University with John Miles and crew, and having studied in the craggy North Cascades with North Cascades Institute folks such as Saul Weisberg. And we are all changed forever.

When I finished the program, I felt like I could conquer the world. I had my new shiny nonprofit that I was “ready” to launch. My keystone program was a high school youth leadership program for highachieving 10th and 11th graders. It was modeled after the semester-abroad exchange idea. Youth come to a unique destination, learn about sustainability from community experts and prepare to apply what they have learned. Problem was, my New Mexico-based nonprofit was pretty far from the place I had come to deeply understand and appreciate, the North Cascades and Puget Sound lowlands. I have never had such a strong sense of place as I have here in the Puget Sound area. That’s also when the reality of funding sources started to kick in: I would not be launching my nonprofit right away in my new home of the Puget Sound.

So I did what I could to stay in this region. I worked for the Institute for a while doing everything from being a contract instructor, to a cook, to facilities help. I got back into education for two seasons working for NatureBridge at Olympic Park Institute outside Port Angeles, but it was still seasonal work.

Before long, I was the Education Director for Sound Experience and the historic schooner Adventuress in Port Townsend. One reality that I am not sure any schooling could have prepared me for, though, was a failing economy and the pressures of nonprofits to survive.

I found out first-hand that program income was very important for our programs with Sound Experience, as other funding sources dried up, including revenue from schools.

After Sound Experience, I worked with a start-up nonprofit called South Sound Estuary Association in Olympia and entered into a new type of education: education combined with outreach. Part of my work was raising public awareness of the organization, part was raising awareness of issues affecting the South Sound estuary and part was raising support for a new education center. That meant numerous PowerPoints to Rotary Clubs and environmental groups, writing press releases and developing web media. Much of this awareness raising was to build support for the budding organization.

After my stint at the South Sound Estuary Association, I became the Volunteer Coordinator for WSU Skagit Extension and the Beach Watchers in Mount Vernon.

This was my first introduction into working with government bureaucracy. One big lesson I learned was that everything took much longer to get done, especially if it involved money.

I eventually came back to live in Olympia when I got married. I found myself working for the government again, this time for the local Public Works agency, working to promote waste prevention and resource conservation. Working for a utility-funded agency was an eye-opener. We were scarcer of time than resources, and not worrying as much about the budget has been a real paradigm shift. As an Education and Outreach Specialist, I often found myself offering informal education at events, on social media, on our YouTube channel and at presentations and meetings.

While working in the solid waste and recycling industry was aligned with my focus of promoting environmental protection, I also realized that I had other passions that weren’t being filled: I missed the nonprofit world.

And so, at night and on weekends, I volunteered as the Treasurer and as a board member for Garden Raised Bounty (GRuB). This is where I applied my nonprofit education to support a great community organization.

We worked to cultivate good food systems, good community and good people. I loved it.

Now, I am starting a new chapter with my wife in the Portland area. I am the new Senior Program Educator for Washington County Solid Waste and Recycling Program in Hillsboro. I am coordinating single-family residence outreach, overseeing purchasing and reviewing content for our educators. I also get to work with the Master Recycler volunteers working in our county. A great part of my job is coordinating with the unique Metro government model and representatives from the cities of Portland, Beaverton and Gresham and Clackamas County. The best part is that I am part of a great team of people that are working to be the area’s waste prevention and recycling resource.

There are many things I took away from graduate school. One lesson that sticks with me the most is from the nonprofit management aspect, specifically the need to stay flexible and be ever-ready to respond to changing conditions. I still have not given up on my nonprofit dream, though now I realize the value in taking incremental steps toward making it a reality in Portland, my new home. Stay tuned…

Brian Stafki graduated from North Cascades Institute and Western Washington University’s Master of Education program in 2004. He lives in Portland, OR with his wife and two cats. When not working for Washington County, he is planning his new garden.

Timely updates about the Graduate M.Ed. Program:

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ur next graduate cohort begins studies July 28, 2014 with an intensive one-month field experience in the North Cascades

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e’re excited to roll out the new summer quarter with reduced cost for incoming students!

For information on the application process, financial aid, scholarships and more, please visit www.ncascades.org/study.

SAVE THE DATE! We will be having a retirement party for John Miles and a Graduate Program reunion (13 cohorts!)

September 5-7 at the Learning Center.

We don’t have details yet, but hope you’ll mark it down on your calendars now. This should be a GREAT event and we hope all of you can be there!

Keep in Touch!

We’d love to hear about your post-graduate school accomplishments and adventures, so feel free to send updates to our Communications Coordinator at christian_martin@ncascades.org. We share our alumni’s success stories on our website (http://ncascades.org/study/graduate-students/alumni-in-action), on our Chattermarks blog (http://chattermarks.ncascades.org) and in the Picket Post Alumni Newsletter (http://bit.ly/1jxN5AR).

chattermarks.org

A blog about Living, Learning and Teaching in the North Cascades