NRCA's Conservation Ambassador Program is a unique opportunity for high school students to learn about natural resources science and conservation biology from UConn professors, graduate students, and each other. This video was shown to parents, students, and staff at the end of the 2014 field experience.
We realize that each student has a story and that this field experience has an unique effect on everyone involved. We hope that this short video gives you the sense of the grand narrative of the Conservation Ambassador Program.
Connecticut has a long history of local governance, and land use planning and natural resource decisions are often made at the town level. Accommodating growth, while at the same time conserving and protecting natural resources, is often a challenge. Most actively involved citizens, including high schools students, are interested in the environment but may lack the training and experience to contribute to these local efforts.
NRCA’s Conservation Ambassador Program (CAP) is an exciting program that engages high school students in land use planning and natural resource conservation. Students participating in the NRCA’s CAP will learn about a wide range of topics related to natural resources and the environment, including units on water, forestry, soil, fish and wildlife, landscape ecology, and habitat protection. Students will actively engage in each of these units in both classroom and field activities during a week-long field experience at the University of Connecticut (UConn). The classroom portion of each of these units will be illustrated and reinforced via field visits and fieldwork. Upon completing the field experience each student will then work on a conservation project in his or her community.
The mission of NRCA’s CAP is to engage high school students from a variety of backgrounds in natural resource science and to provide transformative learning opportunities for students to interact physically, intellectually, and creatively with local environments while contributing to environmental solutions in their own communities.
Expertise and resources available at UConn and the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment will support this mission.
During the one-week training experience, students will stay in college dorms and eat in the dining halls. With the 2,100 acre UConn Forest as a classroom, students will explore various components of the natural environment, as well as nearby lakes, streams, and wetlands.
With help from local conservation leaders, students will apply new knowledge and tools to complete a conservation project in their local community and obtain credit through their high school. Students will present their work at the annual Connecticut Conference on Natural Resources in March.
NRCA's CAP was awarded the 2016 Maria Pirie Environmental Education Program Award by the New England Environmental Education Alliance.
