Alayna Schmidt, a non-formal educator at Mountain Trail Outdoor School, just completed the North Carolina Environmental Education program. Alayna credits the program with helping her get a job where she not only teaches programs to students visiting the Mountain Trail Outdoor School but also cares for animals in the nature center, improves lessons, and maintain grounds and facilities. When she is not being a jack-of-all trades at work, Alayna enjoys nature photography, hiking, and knitting in her spare time.
Alayna’s favorite part of earning her certification was going to the various workshops. She not only learned a lot but also actively engaged with the environmental education network at these workshops. “I met some inspiring individuals in our community of educators,” Alayna notes. In particular, Alayna says that one workshop stood out to her as an important part of her certification experience, “The experience that stands out most to me was when I went to the Methods of Environmental Education workshop and had the opportunity to network with someone who would later offer me a work-study position.”
In addition to using the program to make new connections and locate job opportunities, Alayna also designed and constructed an exhibit at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education for her community partnership project. Alayna made an animal track display in their exhibit hall. “Visitors from all over come to the center to find out more about the local wildlife, and my exhibit allows visitors to interact with what animal tracks in a local stream bank might look like.”
Participating in the certification program strengthened Alayna’s self-confidence and changed her approach to teaching others: “Through this program, I have gained confidence in my ability to teach EE effectively. I am now aware of the incredible resources available to me, not just information and curricula, but also the community of passionate environmental educators I can reach out to in our state.” This community of educators was a key part of this program for Alayna. She recommended growing this support for future educators. “By having certified environmental educators in leadership or supervising roles volunteer to be mentors for people pursuing the certification, it could help individuals who are not currently working as an educator achieve their teaching hours, present an opportunity to gain valuable experience and networking, and strengthen our community of educators.”
The program also altered the way Alayna thinks about environmental issues. She gained awareness of the complexities involved in solving environmental problems. However, Alayna also realized the important role environmental literacy plays in handling these complex problems. “I work to increase environmental literacy in our current and future decision-makers so that there will be an ever-increasing number of people with the knowledge and resources to make well-informed decisions regarding the environment.”
To find out more about Mountain Trail Outdoor School, head to their website: www.kanuga.org/camps-outdoor-education/mountain-trail-outdoor-school/. To find out more about Pisgah Center for Wildlife, check out their website at ncwildlife.org/Learning/Education-Centers/Pisgah. To learn more about the Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs and our certification program, visit us at www.eenorthcarolina.org.
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