2022-2023 Highlights

While we’re gearing up for summer camp and welcoming new seasonal staff at DLC, we’re also saying goodbye to the class of 2022-23 Environmental Education Fellows. For the last Naturalist Note of the spring, the fellows (plus Anthony, our On-Site Education & Fellowship Manager) would like to share some of their favorite moments from the past year. We hope you enjoy!

Kate: The first week of summer camp was really hot, so we played a game one afternoon in the lodge. As part of this game, we asked the campers to do an impression of a trail group leader. One of my kids came up and did a spot-on impression of me on our hike earlier that day: “If you haven’t had water in the last five minutes, take a drink of water!”

Sierra: On a rainy day on the Cowles Bog trail, I found a baby snapping turtle and I got to show all the students! It was cool because it was the first turtle I’d found on trail.

Jarrod: During Dunes Adventure camp, I was on the Cabin Leader shift for one night. After a long day I was very tired, so when we got to our tent in the evening I was falling asleep, leaving the campers to entertain themselves. I heard one of them say, “Let’s play Uno in our minds!” The next words I heard were “red four,” followed by “green four,” then “wild card!” Although it started out normally, they soon played orange cards, pink cards, and made up special edition cards. For a half hour or so this continued. As tired as I was, they were having fun and that was all that mattered to me.

Alex:  There’s a plywood board in front of the garage at Sears House. In the summer, the Fellows living at Sears liked to search under the board for critters. One day, we found two milk snakes curled up underneath! They weren’t the first or last snakes we found, but they were pretty cool!

Anthony: I loved sitting around the fire during our fall staff training trip to Conner Prairie. It was great just having casual conversation and learning more about each other. Everyone was so concerned with me overcooking my hobo packet, and I loved it. 

Genevieve: During a Frog in the Bog program, I introduced the waste dilemma to my trail group and we had a great discussion! We talked about both big- and small-scale changes to reduce waste. My group even felt inspired to make some changes at their school like trying a food waste challenge and starting an environmental club.

Stephanie: One of my favorite memories happened during a night hike. My group and I were starting our “solo hikes,” and we made owl calls back and forth to each other so the next student knows when to start hiking. While we did our owl calls, a real barred owl started calling back to us! It was the first time I’ve had an owl call back during solo hike, it was a really awesome experience!

Travis: During a high school winter program, one student shared with the group after trying a wild edible plant that he had a list of things he had eaten before. Another student commented that the list was full of strange things. The teacher and I both stated we wanted to see the list. The student then turned around and said to me and the teacher, “Have you ever eaten a bus seat before?”

Aoife: I have a few so I will keep them short! My first favorite that comes to mind is when we went to Jasper Pulaski to see the sandhill crane migration. I had never seen anything like that before, it was really special. Next is the first filming of Birding with Burdsall – we had a good laugh! Another was coming home and finding a personal concert in the living room when Sierra and Hope were playing violin and flute. And last I will say seeing a cute little blue-spotted salamander for the first time.

Hope: One day when we were out picking up trash, I found what looked like dryer lint on the ground. When I got closer, I saw that it was actually owl pellets. Sierra came by to look and she said, “there must’ve been an owl right above us!” I looked up and there really was an owl right there – a saw-whet owl, to be exact! That moment made me feel the kind of excitement I see kids have all the time when we spot an animal on trail.

Bella: I returned to DLC as an Educator after two years away, and I felt so grateful to experience something I had done before with new people, new knowledge, and a new mindset. I saw firsthand just how much impact an organization like DLC can have. I met returning campers moving up from Discovery camp to teen camp, teen campers moving on to being cabin leaders, and a new set of Educators who were motivated, passionate, and welcoming. During the school year, every time a student said this was their favorite field trip or a chaperone mentioned how impactful this experience is, I remembered how influential my work is.

Fellows, Class of 2022-2023