Educator Spotlight: Abigail Ridge

 

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.”

Abigail worked with a local nursery to secure native pollinator plants and developed a planting guide based on the site. “The school was excited for the opportunity to engage teachers and students in ongoing learning opportunities related to pollinators, habitat, and botany. Abigail learned from discussions with the Director of Curriculum at the school that their curriculum contains a focus on botany and therefore, the garden would be an excellent experiential addition.

“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.”