Environmental Education at The Monteverde Conservation League by Sophia Brooks (University of Redlands)

The focus of my internship was promoting environmental education through working with the Monteverde Conservation League in the Bajo del Tigre reserve, which is one of their protected areas. My initial focus within the reserve was set to be in the Casita de los Niños (Children’s Room), where my supervisor and I brainstormed over the course of a few days our shared visions of what the room would look like.

Sophie prepares an interactive educational exhibit

I am extremely passionate about environmental and outdoor education, especially with children. There is a huge disconnect between nature and people, but it is this generation’s children who are not experiencing the outdoors fully. Fewer children are spending time outdoors, even though there is countless research that has shown just how cleansing and beneficial being in nature is. This past year I have focused much of my time trying to interpret and solve this disconnect, as well as determine how nature is cleansing to me personally. 

This passion of mine has also helped direct the kind of route I want to take in the future, and interning with this organization has given me a wonderful example of something I see myself being heavily involved in. I want to find a job either with kids or young adults, and help spread awareness about what it means to not only experience nature, but truly appreciate it as well for what it is. I am currently a trip leader at my University (University of Redlands, in Redlands, CA), so pairing outdoor leadership with the environmental education component that I gained from this internship has been extremely rewarding and motivating.

I have learned how to better adapt to big changes in a project. Once I have a plan or vision, I work hard until the job is finished. However, due to the storm that hit during the first half of the internship timeline, my responsibilities shifted and I had to quickly change my focus while still maintaining a positive outlook for the next weeks. While changing original goals and intentions was an honest challenge for me, I came out of this internship with a better sense of how to combat frustrations in all stages of a project.  

Jose (of the Monteverde Conservation League) teaches Sophie how to use power tools (left) and she learns about plant-animal interactions in the tropics, as part of her internship