The Conservation Legacy Effect Featuring Iliana Peña and Kassi Scheffer Article by LORIE A. WOODWARD Photo by KRISTIN PARMA
S
pring Break 2020 will loom large in the collective memory of educators as the time when all hell broke loose. “COVID-19 threw us all a curveball,” TWA’s Director of Youth Education Kassi Scheffer said. Students and teachers left their classrooms for a seven-day break, never expecting that it would be almost seven months before schools could reconvene. Adult educators, who had calendars of long-scheduled events, scrambled to contend with shelter-in place orders, travel bans and prohibitions on public gatherings. “COVID required us to very quickly change how we did things and how we saw our jobs,” TWA’s Director of Conservation Programs Iliana Peña said. “We had to be more creative in how we executed traditional programs.” Scheffer concurred, “Because of the pandemic, the Conservation Legacy staff, more than ever before, embraced the Marine Corps’ mission: improvise, adapt and overcome.”
22 T E X A S W I L D L I F E
Overcome they did. In the youth education realm, conservation educators transformed five in-class presentation modules into virtual learning experiences. “Within three weeks, our team members were back in the ‘classrooms’ virtually,” Scheffer said. “No complaining, just problem solving and forward motion.” The full calendar of adult events ranging from the education programs and Private Lands Summit that help define the TWA Convention experience to field days such as “Small Acreage, Big Opportunities” and partnership conferences such as the South Texas Wildlife Conference were reimagined as online offerings. “We didn’t cancel any of our TWA events,” Peña said. “Were they ideal? No. But we were able to do it.” Despite the limitations, people responded to the re-imagined learning opportunities. As one example, the February “Small Acreage, Big Opportunities” workshop had 29
DECEMBER 2020
attendees at the in-person event, while 79 people participated in the virtual workshop held in May. “There’s no way of knowing whether or not 79 people would have attended an in-person event, but we do know on-line experiences remove the mileage barriers that exist for Texans,” Peña said. “And we do know our audience—our members, our land stewards—are still passionate and eager for good information. If we provide the opportunity, they take it.” While COVID provided more than its share of challenges, it also provided a multi-faceted prism through which to examine the many different aspects of the Conservation Legacy program. In 2019, a donor challenged the staff to examine, evaluate and possibly expand the outreach and education programs through a project dubbed CL 2.0. “It’s the first time in 20 years that we’ve enlisted facilitators, along with our partners and stakeholders to join us, as we undergo a deep-diving self-examination,” said Scheffer. “We’re taking a long, hard look at our strengths, our weaknesses
