Last spring semester, I was looking for a job to make some extra money, but stumbled on a great summer opportunity. Now, I work at Johns Hopkins Center for Educational Outreach with Dr. Ciaran Harman, an environmental engineering professor, on the Young Environmental Scientists (YES!) Program. The program is dedicated to exposing rising 3rd and 4th graders in the city of Baltimore who don’t have access to the outdoors to learning opportunities in nature. I am a Program Assistant for YES!, so I helped to recruit the students, organize the logistics of the summer program, and supervise the learning opportunities. Along the way, I learned valuable lessons about organizing a program, working with children, and learning in nature:
1. Paperwork is the most important hurdle to get over.
This program’s main goal in recruitment was to break down barriers facing bright students who were curious and interested in science but didn’t have easy access to learning opportunities like ours. I did not expect the hardest obstacle to be completing paperwork. I made daily calls to parents to remind them about completing the paperwork and sending it to us. The biggest barrier to break through was often completing the health forms, which required a doctor’s visit, and receiving the paperwork before certain deadlines.
2. Children get attached really easily.
Though the program itself only ran for 8 days, the students got attached to us and each other very quickly. By the end, we had all formed a bond that can only be forged in temporary, short-lived summer programs. It was fantastic to see how their worldviews opened up the more they interacted with nature. It was also very sweet to see how they recognized how much they would miss our program and spending the day in nature with us. I’ve always loved working with children, but to work with them from the viewpoint of a teacher was very moving.
3. You can learn about the environment and interacting with nature at any age.
Despite applying for and accepting this job, I was never really an outdoors person. After experiencing all the cool things we organized for the students, I found myself really enjoying being outdoors too. We got to do things like canoeing, picking berries, and going on hikes. Before, I avoided anything that might involve bugs or sweating, but now I find myself being okay with tolerating certain conditions to be able to hike in a beautiful forest or learn about different types of fungi.
Image Credit: Nafisa Haque