Abigail Ridge, Education Programs Coordinator for the North Carolina Forestry Association, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification.
Abigail graduated
from NC State University with a BS in fisheries, wildlife and conservation
biology and minors in environmental education, entomology and plant biology. Students
who minor in environmental education at NC State University are given the
opportunity to earn their NC Environmental Education through a partnership between
the university and the Department of Environmental Quality.
In her role
with the association, Abigail develops and implements education programs
including the Sustainable Forestry Teachers Experience. She participates in
statewide career development events and education conferences and helps
administer the association’s scholarship program. Abigail has also helped
coordinate the development of a high school forestry course for NC Agricultural
Education and with the adoption of the ForestryWorks Forest Worker Credential
Program. This credential is for students who plan to go directly into the
workforce after graduation and those going on to higher education for either
forestry or another natural resource based major.
Abigail says
her favorite part of earning her certification was the opportunity to explore
different parks in the Raleigh area that she could later visit on her own.
“Obtaining the environmental education certification has given me the
opportunity to step outside of my typical job requirements and to gain valuable
information. It also meaningful to be part of the larger environmental
education community and will be beneficial to have as my career progresses.”
When asked
about an experience in the program that stood out for her, Abigail says it was
a birding experience at White Deer Park in Garner. “The instructor was an
absolute delight and treated everyone the same regardless of their level of
bird knowledge.”
For her
community partner project, Abigail collaborated with her colleague, Jessica
Ireland, who was also working on her certification, to install a native
pollinator garden at Follow the Child Montessori School. “We partnered with the
school to plan workdays for faculty and families to establish the garden and we
planned a celebration for all the students. This provided the community with a
wonderful hands-on, outdoor learning space for their botany and entomology
lessons.”
“This garden
is beneficial as a resource to the community as an outdoor learning experience
for the students. The garden will also provide teachers with hands-on materials
for teaching botany lessons for the students during the school year.”