Educator Spotlight: Bryce Tholen

Bryce Tholen, the environmental education coordinator and stewardship assistant for the NC Coastal Land Trust, recently completed his NC Environmental Education Certification.

Bryce especially enjoys getting students outdoors. “I connect with schools across multiple coastal counties to offer free in-class teaching programs as well exciting field trips to various preserves, gardens, and forests. I have many hobbies that include outdoor recreation, from surfing to hiking to fishing and hunting, so being able to share my love of the outdoors with students across North Carolina is truly special.”

Bryce says his favorite part of the certification program is the amount of information he learned. “Throughout earning my certification, I took courses on everything from the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion workshop and Methods of Teaching Environmental Education to butterfly identification. In hindsight I am amazed about the variety of information I learned throughout this process.”

The experience in the program that really stood out for Bryce was the bat and amphibian identification course he took at Carolina Beach State Park.  “The tools used to identify bats based on their echolocation was fascinating. And learning the sounds of all the local toads and frogs was great too.”

For his community Bryce coordinated both the environmental education activities and the volunteers for Wilmington’s “Fire in the Pines” festival in 2022. The festival educates the local community about why prescribed burns are important for the longleaf pine ecosystem and includes a small, prescribed fire demonstration. Bryce organized field trips with local Title I schools to Halyburton Park and they participated in an outdoor field trip hosted by local organizations including The Coastal Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, The City of Wilmington, The NC Forest Service, and The NC Longleaf Coalition. “The fire in the pines field trips were exclusively offered to these schools for free. We wanted to provide outdoor educational opportunities for students who do not generally have the resources to participate in such field trips.”

Bryce says the program changed his approach to teaching. “Beyond increasing my knowledge of many topics, the program has also taught me better teaching methods. The way I approach each student is different than before I started my EE certification.”