Educator Spotlight: Jessica Black

Jessica Black, an educator from Guilford County recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification. Jessica credits the program with helping her start a new position as an environmental education instructor. “The certification program not only gave me the knowledge that I needed for the environmental educator instructor position that I will be soon taking, but also just made me aware that such a career existed, as well as helping open doors to it for me.”

Jessica develops and teaches environmental education programs and activities for the public. She uses public parks and similar locations to provide engaging activities that encourage people to become “backyard naturalists” and stewards of the environment.” For her community partnership project, Jessica established a nonprofit organization that utilized public parks to conduct environmental education programs for free for the public. In her personal time, she likes spending time with her children and taking road trip adventures. She is also a 4-H sport shooting instructor and enjoys church and line dancing.

When asked what certification experience stands out for her, Jessica said it was learning about the program. “I will never forget how my environmental educator journey began. I accidentally took the cornerstone Methods of Teaching Environmental Education course just to earn educator CEUs. I learned from the other participants what environmental education was all about and from there I was on board. I am grateful I stumbled across that course and for all the experiences that followed; even the time we were doing a Project Learning Tree beat-a- branch activity and the group almost hit a tree branch close to me that had a sleeping red bat hanging from it!”

Jessica says the program changed her approach to teaching. “The number of techniques, methods, approaches, and other teaching tools garnered through these experiences is so extensive that I will be able to constantly pull from to modify and improve my approach to teaching others.”

Jessica says the program encouraged her to visit new places and experience new things that increased her knowledge of environmental issues. “The program helped me to become aware of the many environmental issues that are taking place that I had not heard of before. I also became aware of issues close to me and realized that I can have a positive impact - we all can.”