Educator Spotlight: Jessica Blackburn

Jessica Blackburn, an educator with the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification. In this role, Jessica provides environmental education and  outdoor programming for the youth in Jackson and Macon Counties. “The Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust is a non-profit conservation organization that conserves land, educates people, and maintains public access to its properties so most of my programming is held on the properties we conserve. I am a full-time graduate student in biology at Western Carolina University where I am also a teaching assistant for biology labs. Some of my hobbies include hiking, baking, and reading.”

Jessica says her favorite part of the program was travelling around this state. “Although I grew up here, earning my certification allowed me to travel to places in North Carolina that I had never visited.” She says the experience in the program that really stood out for her was going to Cherokee and learning more about the NC Wildlife Resources Commission’s Project WILD workshop and about the Cherokee culture at the New Kituwah Academy. “I loved how we learned about some traditional Cherokee greetings through active participation. Furthermore, learning from people of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians made the experience genuine.”

For her community partnership, she organized and taught a mushroom inoculation workshop. “For this program I wanted to emphasize the power that growing your own food has and how simple it can be. On one of the land trust properties, Edward Baker Preserve, community members gathered, and I taught participants how to drill holes in the logs, inoculate with edible mushroom spawn and store at home for future harvesting. Community members were so excited and so engaged. They let me know they would be demonstrating this new skill to other community members.”

Jessica says the program changed her approach to teaching. “This program allowed me to grow as a public speaker and get more creative with my lessons. Prior to this, I was not the biggest fan of talking in front of people or instructing people on how to learn. Now I have the confidence and organization to teach anyone.