“It was just incredibly inspiring,” said Boxerwood Educator Ginny Johnson. “That’s the best way to sum up the experience of this year’s NAAEE conference.”
Ginny and her BEA colleagues spent three days learning from other environmental educators from around the country – and around the world – who shared their wisdom, questions, challenges, and victories with hundreds of others in attendance. Projects ranged from birding to art-making to composting to ocean protection to podcast production, all with the theme of “Building Bridges.” And true to its name, the conference laid the groundwork for bridges of all kinds – from connecting with best practices to project inspiration to cross-country partnerships.
“We certainly have a sense of the positive impact we’re having here in Rockbridge,” Ginny went on, “but it’s incredibly valuable to see the way that this kind of kid-centered, hands-on, inquiry-based learning is happening all over the country. And beyond that, there were so many projects that kindled new ideas for Boxerwood, sparking fresh ways for us to engage with our community.”
At one of the presentations, Ginny and fellow BEA educator Catherine Epstein heard representatives from Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, a Massachusetts-based environmental youth program for the creative arts. Bow Seat supports young artists who use a variety of media – from film to painting to collage to poetry – to express their understanding, research, and responses to climate change. How might Boxerwood encourage Rockbridge youth to show their own creativity in this way?
Later in the conference, Program Director Elise Sheffield spoke at length with an environmental educator from Taiwan doing marine debris outreach, which had strong echoes of Boxerwood’s own Ocean Protectors program. What kind of international partnerships might be possible given these similarities?
At another session, the whole team witnessed a presentation by T’Noya Thompson, founder of the Bahamanians, Birds, and Botany initiative that empowers 11th and 12th graders in the Bahamas and helps to cultivate citizen science and leadership through dynamic experiences exploring birds and ecosystems. What can Boxerwood learn from this kind of focused scientific work with older students?
“If anyone’s looking for proof that meaningful environmental education is happening,” said Ginny, “they don’t need to search any further than this group of teachers, leaders, and scientists. These are just some of the people all over the country who keep our children – and our communities – thriving and resilient.”