Kalysha Clark

Last weekend, I attended the Environmental Education of North Carolina Conference in Columbia, NC. Even though I was born and raised in North Carolina, I haven’t spent much time on the coast. I was excited that the conference venue was directly on the Albemarle Sound, specifically Bull Bay. The conference was hosted at the Eastern 4H conference center and therefore, the theme of the conference was centered on the 4 H’s: Hands, Head, Heart and Health.

Friday night at the start of the conference, we got a cool opportunity to hear from two brothers who grew up in Columbia as they shared stories of fishing with their father, getting into trouble, and even going to war. They talked about the importance of getting outside and learning about the natural world, but also touched on the importance of taking care of our earth, which reinforced the reason a lot of us began our work in environmental education.

Saturday consisted of several sessions. Over the course of the day, I learned about a cool project created by UNC Chapel Hill and UNCTV that allows students, teachers, and the everyday citizen to learn about their watershed and how it is impacted by humans through technology and online modules. I also learned how to tie a fly fishing fly and how to integrate bird-watching into classes.

Best of all, I reunited with one of my former supervisors (who supervised me during my conservation internship at Piedmont Wildlife Center), I met one of the other students in my graduate lab, and I got to network with a lot of professionals in the field.