"In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught"-Babe Dioum
Now that I have some housekeeping posts out of the way, I am
excited to get started on the purpose of this blog. For my first
"real" post I would like to focus on something that is important in
my opinion for the new professional naturalist to get an understanding of:
motivation. My hope for this post is that it will give us an opportunity to get
to know each other a bit better as well as provide an initial stepping stone
concept to cover we begin our exploration of environmental education.
Dictionary.com defines
motivation as providing a reason to act in a certain way. There can be
many reasons to get into environmental education and it can really vary from
person to person. I want to first tell you about my motivation to
get into environmental education. I remember this like it was yesterday. I was
sitting in lecture on my first day of Wildlife Management class as a freshman
when the professor told the class something I will never forget: “Wildlife
management is just as much the management of people as it is the management of
wildlife.” I had an inkling from that point that education would be somewhere
in my future but I could never have guessed how drastically it would shape my
life. After trying my hand at a lot of different areas of the wildlife
management field, I came to the conclusion that for me, environmental education
was where I belonged. There is no better opportunity to reach out to
individuals and connect with them in a way to instill the same love of nature
that I have. At least I haven't found one yet!
One
of the fallacies that I can see new professionals falling into is the thought
that EE might be an easy field to get into. I have struggled for many a night
with the thoughts of the future and how I can get my foot in the door for
meaningful employment. If I wanted to get that full-time opportunity right out
of college I probably would have been better off trying to be a lawyer, doctor,
or engineer. I'm not saying isn’t possible but the prospects of getting a well-paying
job right off the bat is very slim. When the most of the
places of employment are non-profit and funded by grants and donations, it can
be difficult to find for them to offer competitive wages. Is it
possible to land the full-time gig? Sure. Is it likely? No. So to start
off, it seems like an endless road of internships, volunteering, and seasonal
work. This is the unfortunate situation the EE field has worked its way into
and in my opinion it's the young naturalists that suffer. And unfortunately I
don't foresee this trend ending any time soon...
That
being said, EE is indeed a rewarding field if you are looking for more than
just economic reward. Going into EE has given me the best opportunity to
reach a wide audience that I can teach to about what I really care about:
nature. It has given me an outlet to share my fascination of the outdoors while
having an office that is more often outside than inside. It has given me the
opportunity to meet countless number of amazing individuals have spent their
lives living what I hope to teach to to the future generation. There really is
no better way to build an environmentally conscience society then instilling a
love for the land in the heart of a child.
Whatever your motivation is for getting into environmental
education, embrace it. Without a purpose to dedicate to this field is daunting
to break into. Keep on fighting the good fight and let me know what motivates
you in the comments below :)
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