Educator Spotlight: Erica Connery

Erica Connery recently earned her North Carolina Environmental Education Certification. Connery is a Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC) AmeriCorps member at the N.C. Coastal Federation’s Northeast office in Wanchese.

As an CTNC AmeriCorps member serving with N.C. Coastal Federation, Connery does education and outreach visiting local schools and presenting coastal science programs to groups of all ages. She also helps with the federation’s restoration projects. “I love living at the beach and exploring North Carolina’s coastal environments and being able to teach others about the coast.”

Connery says that the instructional workshops were her favorite part of the certification program. “They were a fun way to learn new teaching methods and get lots of program ideas, and I also got to meet a great network of fellow environmental educators in Eastern North Carolina. I was able to travel to several different environmental centers and sites for the workshops and it was interesting to learn from a variety of instructors.”

Connery’s community partnership project involved organizing field experiences at Jockey’s Ridge State Park for children in the Mano al Hermano family literacy program. Connery notes that not all of the children in the program get to the beach or sound during the summer. “By providing transportation for the field trip, the children had an opportunity to interact with other kids during a fun day outside their homes and it allowed them to explore the environments that they learned about in the books they read this summer.”

Connery liked that the certification program requires you to visit sites outside your own region. “I think it is important to see different parts of the state and learn how different environmental subjects are taught. Even though my focus is on coastal environmental education, I learned from all my workshop experiences by observing different teaching styles and the ways that people connect to the environment no matter where they live.”

Connery said that participating in the certification taught her to be more thoughtful about what she wanted people to get from her program.  “This program introduced me to more teaching techniques and methods to reach a broader audience. The workshops make you think about different learning styles and the different backgrounds that people may bring to your program and how to connect with them.”

For more information about CTNC AmeriCorps program, visit http://www.ctnc.org/connect/ctnc-americorps. To learn more about the NC Coastal Federation, visit http://www.nccoast.org. For more information on the Environmental Education Certification, visit the Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs website at www.eenorthcarolina.org