On September 5, 2007, the St. Bernard’s faculty received a presentation describing a wonderful new opportunity combining career development, environmental stewardship, and some good down-in-the-dirt fun. Alan Fortescue, Director of Education for Earthwatch Institute, came to the school to describe the Earthwatch teacher fellowship program. Thanks to George Eberstadt ’80, a trustee of both St. Bernard’s and Earthwatch, a St. Bernard’s faculty member will participate in an Earthwatch expedition, joining a team of other educators and volunteers from around the world to assist leading environmental scientists in conducting their field research and then bringing those experiences back to the classroom.
Grade I teacher Dana Berlin, St. B’s first Earthwatch fellow, will spend eleven days this July researching Sykes monkeys in Arab Gedi Ruins on the east coast on Kenya. Those who want to learn more about Earthwatch can find their website at www.earthwatch.org.
We asked George what sparked the idea. “I’ve seen first-hand how positive it can be. I went on an Earthwatch expedition in the Pantanal in Brazil a few years ago and worked alongside a teacher-fellow studying that endangered wetland. The excitement he showed during the expedition about the ways he could use in his classroom what he was doing in the field made a big impression on me. St. Bernard’s current students are going to live with the challenges of environmental sustainability as they grow up; an understanding of natural systems will be an essential part of citizenship. So I thought that an Earthwatch educator fellowship would be great not only for the faculty but for the students as well. I hope that if this first year proves a success, the relationship with Earthwatch will grow in the future.”
The head of the science department, Richard Malenky, who spent thirteen years doing primate research in Africa before coming to St. Bernard’s, met with Ed Wilson, the Director of Earthwatch, back in September, when the idea was first proposed. He had these thoughts about Earthwatch. “Thirty-five years ago Earthwatch figured out this fabulous model of matching up adventurous amateurs with professional environmental scientists, and by now they’ve brought over 85,000 volunteers into the field. Their reputation in the scientific community is excellent. But at least as important, I think, is the impact on the volunteers themselves. The expeditions are generally about two weeks long, but the environmental values that people learn during these experiences–and then pass on to others–last a lifetime. I’m very excited about this relationship for St. Bernard’s.”
No. 36, Winter 2008, page 10