So I graduated from South Lakes and did my undergrad at the University of Oregon (a world away from Northern VA). I studied biology and minored in chemistry with a focus on ecology. After graduating I worked seasonal wildlife biology jobs for a while in CA, OR and CO. After a while it became clear that this was not really enough and I needed to go back to school. I had a weird epiphany one day about becoming a high school science teacher so I did an M.A.T. with a focus on biology. I didn’t get a job anywhere that I wanted to live so I ended up spending just under a year traveling and working in Costa Rica as an ecological/tourist guide.

When I got back to the states I ended up getting a job working for a museum in OR directing an NSF funded project that was a natural resource management and technology career exposure program for Native American students focusing on salmon mitigation efforts with a major cultural integration component. I did this for 5 years and I’m currently a doctoral student at Oregon State University in the Science and Math Education Department focusing on free choice learning. I want to help facilitate outreach and education efforts for watershed scale restoration projects, I’m looking at ways to reach diverse stakeholders in these endeavors, particularly private land owners. I’m researching collaborative efforts and mechanisms for making inroads into rural communities where agriculture/logging is king. I want to try and change the way people approach land use and resource extraction. Ultimately I want to help create/enact land-use policy that will help balance natural resource extraction with ecological conservation. These are big goals and I’m just staring my Ph.D. and I’m already aware that I need to narrow my focus but I’m trying to clarify my interests.

Basically conservation and the preservation of wild areas have been a passion all my life. I’m studying different aspects of what goes into generating personal interests and emotions towards different subjects. I can now look back and recognize that your class had a huge impact on me at a critical period of my life. I don’t know if you meant to do this or not but the way your framed environmental issues and concerns really had a tremendous impact on me. I do see that other experiences helped establish my interests (my parents are avid outdoor people), but your class was instrumental in developing what has really been the driving passion for my professional career.

I have interacted with hundreds (if not thousands) of kids over the years and I’ve often thought if I can have the kind of impact on them you had on me I’ll die happy. I figured if you had the kind of impact on me that you did maybe I can reach some kids on the same level. I try to create a spark in them relating to environmental issues and think about ways that they can make a difference. I have stayed in touch with several former students of mine and some of them are indeed pursuing science careers.

I’m moving away from focusing solely on youth education now but I will continue to be involved in activities like citizen science projects designed towards promoting ecological literacy across different age groups.

Anyhow I’ve tried to get in touch with you a few times over the years, I called the Fairfax County school district etc but no dice until now. Hopefully this doesn’t freak you out, I just wanted you to know that you reached at least one of your students on a truly profound level and really helped shape my whole life’s work and passions. I can’t help but think I’m not the only one…

So here you go, 20 years later. I just wanted to make sure you know these things.

Thanks.


You never know. Ya know. I am utterly speechless.