Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Farewell, Nicole!

As NWPS Intern, Nicole Lee, concludes her internship with us last week, she reflects on her time spent working with our society. Read on below for a glimpse into her experience over the last nine months.




My internship with Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society has been such a unique and positive experience. It began on my very first day with the perfect initiation into this group: a field trip to Boundary Bay to search for migrant snowy owls, followed by a stop at Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Delta to visit an extensive list of additional avian neighbours. Not only was it inspiring to see so much diversity locally, but also to learn that working with NWPS  would mean working with a group of individuals genuinely fascinated by nature.

A recent Environmental Sciences grad and looking for a direction in which to channel my knowledge and interests, I was fortunate to come across NWPS – a group whose mission I was immediately drawn to. The broad appeal of this society differs from the jargon-rich scientific articles that I was used to, but I think that the accessibility of this group’s educational resources was part of what excited me the most! Especially, I agreed (and agree) with the importance of catering environmental education to young and growing minds.

During my time with NWPS, I gained an appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes at an environmental non-profit. Partly, it was through having the opportunity to take on a variety of roles, including, but not limited to: writing species reports,  facilitating our annual Green Ribbon Campaign, coming up with ‘fun facts’ for facebook, and accompanying our educator for school programs including classroom presentations, nature walks, and stewardship events. The other part was seeing how much the few individuals at NWPS’s core bring to the society; from our Education Coordinator, Darren’s, limitless grasp of biology and issues pertaining to wildlife preservation, his rapport with the students, and that extra personal touch from photos and stories of his wildlife encounters; to our Executive Assistant, Kristine’s, ability to keep NWPS at the front of people’s minds through the use of social media, her collaboration with other groups, fundraising and event planning, and her extraordinary ability to multi-task and take care of all things administrative. I have much respect for these two!

Now, as my internship comes to a close, I have some awesome things to take with me. I have increased knowledge of BC’s wildlife and a few more bird species to add to my list of wild sightings. I have a tree planting under my belt and have seen kids who individually are not strong enough to pull out invasive Scotch Broom or remove a gigantic piece of woody debris that is crushing native vegetation, work together to accomplish these tasks. I have become the student when a kid was so excited by bears that he wanted to teach me everything he knew. And I feel thankful to know that NWPS is doing a great job reaching out to young individuals to help get them get excited about and want to preserve our living environment. Thank you so much to everyone who made this experience so rewarding!

Keep up the fantastic work, NWPS!

Nicole Lee