Hi, my name is Erin Andresen, a fisheries and wildlife major in the School of Natural Resources.

I interned this summer with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Wildlife Education Department. My interning consisted of going around to different locations and educating young students, or educators themselves, about wildlife.  It included hands on workshops, inner office tasks, and educating the public on the importance of wildlife.

One workshop included spending the day at Fontanel Forest in Bellevue, Nebraska.  There we taught educators the basics of going bird watching, and introduced them to project BEAK , so they could relay the information to their students.  This is a website created by Lindsay Rogers, the head of the Wildlife Education Department, designed to be user friendly for teachers and their young students.  It is intended to educate children and teachers basic facts about Nebraska birds.

Other days we worked with elementary kids from Lincoln. We did activities with them such as bird watching, created food webs, and identified species in the swamp outside of NGPC.  I was surprised how much I enjoyed informing the children basic facts about wildlife.  They were amazed to see some of the smaller species we identified, which made me feel like we did impact them concerning wildlife in one way or another.

I was also able to do some work in the office of the Wildlife Education Department at NGPC.  I organized their inventory of Trail Tales, dating back to 1995.  This is a magazine published by NGPC for every season of the year.  They send out bulks of this magazine to elementary schools in Lincoln.  This really shows how much the education department works to inform children of today about the importance of wildlife.

As a Fisheries and Wildlife major with an option in Wildlife Conservation Biology, I was able to apply my experiences towards my option in the sense that with my help educating the public about wildlife, they developed a greater found respect for wildlife, and understand the importance wildlife has in our world.  These people will hopefully spread the information they learned to others, which could potentially help conserve the habitat or life of many species since more of the general public is aware of the species surrounding them.  I enjoyed my interning tremendously, and am grateful Lindsay Rogers opened my eyes to endless possibilities when it comes to careers concerning wildlife.