Rebekah Wofford, Educator at Blue Jay County Park in Raleigh Completes Her NC Environmental Education Certification

Rebekah Wofford, an educator at Blue Jay Point County Park in Raleigh has completed the NC Environmental Education Certification Program. Rebekah began working as an educator at Blue Jay Point County Park in 2021 and says she discovered her love of environmental education in the outdoors through her former positions at Durant and Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserves. She is a self-confessed huge herp and bird nerd and on her days off, you can often find her birding alone or with friends. She enjoys engaging with people of all ages to answer their questions and grow their interest in the natural world.

Rebekah says her favorite part of the program was meeting other environmental educators and learning from them. “I met many of my current and former coworkers and made many friends at educator workshops. I was also lucky enough to use some of the classes as excuses to travel across the state! Attending a frog call class in Wilmington and a feral hog class at Great Smoky Mountains were great ways to learn about species in other parts of the state.”

When asked what experience stands out for her, Rebekah says there are several. “The Certified Interpretive Guide course, which I took at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia, was a great experience because it was a longer class with the same people. Over the four-day course, I was able to form relationships with some of the participants, who I still keep up with two years later! Also, a beginner birding course I took occurred around the same time I became seriously interested and excited about birding, one of my biggest hobbies now!”

For her community partnership project, Rebekah built an outdoor box turtle enclosure at Durant Nature Preserve. “It is built along the accessible trail outside the future office, so it is a location that many patrons will visit. The community will have an opportunity to see the rescued box turtle outdoors and to learn more about box turtles in general.” Her project also supports the efforts of staff at Durant Nature Preserve to contribute to the Box Turtle Connection, a state-level initiative of the Box Turtle Collaborative, which aims to improve public understanding of and collect scientific data on populations of Eastern box turtles found in North Carolina.

When asked if the program changed her approach to teaching, Rebekah says it opened her eyes to many new ways to teach. “I became more comfortable with silliness in teaching materials to younger kids. I was also able to diversify ways to get material across and keep participants engaged especially during the pandemic. Some methods that I learned in the 2020 EENC (Environmental Educators of North Carolina) conference really helped my virtual programming skills.”