Educator Spotlight: Amelia Gallina

 

Amelia Gallina, a park ranger at Grandfather Mountain State Park recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification. As the lead interpretation and education ranger at the park, Amelia is the point of contact for programming and field trip requests. “ I love teaching people about the natural communities and endangered species that call them home on Grandfather Mountain. My main environmental interests are birds, trees, and wildflowers, and I try to offer programming on these topics to help others become passionate about them. In my free time I enjoy hiking and kayaking.”

Amelia says her favorite part of earning her certification was the site visits. “I completed many of my site visits with friends or family, and I enjoyed sharing a piece of my world with them. Getting to see my friends so excited to learn and asking me questions fueled my passion for environmental education.”

When asked about a certification experience that stood out for her, Amelia says it was the teaching component. “All of the teaching stands out to me. I love teaching programs, especially the monthly ranger workshops that I do with The Town of Seven Devils. There is usually a group of people that come to every program, and I love getting to see them each month and teach them something new.”

For her community partnership project, Emelia enhanced the native pollinator garden at Grandfather Mountain State Park. With donations from a nursery and the help of local community organizations, we were able to plant almost 200 plant plugs to increase the diversity in the garden and add a matrix layer for stabilization. We were also able to add signs and plant plaques with pictures and QR codes describing some of the plants. The garden is used to promote planting native species to help pollinators, and many of the plants in the garden are found on Grandfather Mountain, allowing people who aren't able to hike to see some of the diversity the mountain has to offer.”

Ameilia says the certification program gave her access to resources. “Participating in the certification program has given me a plethora of new knowledge and skills to help teach others. I've learned new games to play with school groups for field trips, new methods for making online lectures more interactive, and I've learned about new topics that I can now help others learn about as well.”

Amelia says the program also changed her approach to environmental issues. “I have changed the way that I think about teaching future generations. Instead of piling on all of the problems past generations have caused and expecting future generations to solve them, we have to show people the joys in nature first and help them create a connection. We have to teach people about nature and make them comfortable in nature, before we can begin to expect them to fully care about nature.”