YESC Eco-Career Exploration was AWESOME!

Hey gang,

The YESC Summer of 2012 has certainly been one for the ages! Among all of the highlights of this summer, one of my personal favorites was our first-ever YESC Eco-Career Exploration week! This five-day program introduced our participants to different professionals in the environmental field. We learned about their career, formal and informal education, and other previous experiences that prepared them for their career. Below are some photos from the week:

YESC met with Andrew Donaldson of Land Studies to learn about the UMLY Property Management Plan

 We also met with Shriner Tree Care to discuss the world of Arboriculture. We then donned our hard hats for a tree removal project! 

Later in the week, we spent a day with Dr. Nate Rice on a tour of the Ornithology Department of the Academy of Natural Sciences! In addition to a tour of the study skins collection, we watched a demonstration on how to skin a bird!

 Bee hummingbird

 Male and female ivory-billed woodpeckers!

 Dr. Rice with an emperor penguin!

 Ben and Dani love their internship! Ben is skinning a hooded merganser, Dani is skinning a common merganser. What a mess!

On Thursday, YESC spent time with Gary Stoltz, the Refuge Manager at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. Not only did we have an interesting dialogue about his career, but we were given an awesome driving tour to secluded parts of the refuge to learn more about its unique ecology!

YESC concluded the week at Waterloo Mills Preserve with the Natural Resource Manager for the Brandywine Conservancy, Kevin Fryberger. We were given a tour of the beautiful 170-acre property while we learned new strategies about invasive plant removal and management. Not only did we explore about an environmental career, but we learned new strategies to care for our own Cassatt Preserve back at UMLY!

What an incredible week! Thank you to everyone who attended, and a very special thank you to everyone who volunteered their time to mentor our participants. For those who missed this week, do not worry - we will be doing more career exploration throughout the year and next summer!

Time to finish packing for Tuesday's YESC Canoe Adventure trip. More on that later!

- BQ