The four newest Ed Members with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. (Left to right) Aislinn Heathcote, Kate Hibbard, Chrissy Bissett, Michael Donohoe

Hello GSTC supporters!

I would like to take the time to introduce myself as one of the newest AmeriCorps members to the education team! I have traveled here from Syracuse, New York where I recently graduated from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry with a degree in Conservation Biology.

I am super excited to be here on Jekyll Island and to be a part of the GSTC team. What could be better than living on a gorgeous island and talking about turtles all day!? I have only been here a few weeks and already have experienced so much. We just released Bubbles, a juvenile Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. This was my first release and it was amazing! I am absolutely looking forward to many more releases in the future.

I am excited for this upcoming year and look forward to seeing many more eager and excited faces in the center!

Peace, love, and turtles!

Kate

Hello!!  I’m Chrissy and I’m from Wake Forest, North Carolina.  I graduated from the University of North Carolina – Wilmington in July 2009 with my Bachelor’s in Marine Biology.  I have always been a huge fan of sea turtles.  My previous sea turtle experience comes from doing dawn patrol on Figure Eight Island in 2007 and 2008.  I also interned at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island, and I was a patrol memeber this past summer here at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  I guess I just love it here so much that I had to sign up for more!!!  Over this past summer, I saw 37 individual nesting female loggerheads.  It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  I’m very excited to continue on here at the GSTC as an education member and I look forward to a great year teaching everyone about how awesome sea turtles are!

Hello! My name is Aislinn. I am originally from Hanover Pennsylvania, but I have been going to school at Friends University in Wichita Kansas for the past few years where I have been working towards my degree in Zoo Science and Field Biology. I’ve also been able to take a lot of my college courses at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita because of my Zoo Science major, so I have some experience with a wide variety of animals. I still have about a year of schooling left before I graduate, but I’m here because I absolutely love turtles, and I want to gain a lot of experience with them. I am very excited to become a part of the GSTC team! Everyone here is so wonderful and I am falling in love with all of our sea turtle patients. I am looking forward to a fantastic year of education programs and meeting our wonderful visitors!

Hey all, My name’s Mike and I am also an education member at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  After coming on in May I am turtley excited to be staying on for another year!

I have a degree in Zoology and found myself on Jekyll after couch surfing through an internship in Washington DC and Character Ambassadoring at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

I know this is going to be a great year as a part of the GSTC Team.

-The Ed Members

IGEL is a leadership program begun in 2001 to build and develop a diverse network of state environmental leaders who can work together to address Georgia’s environmental challenges. Director Terry Norton, DVM, was a participant in the 2009 IGEL Class.

IGEL alumni are leaving their imprint on the development of national, state and local environmental public policy. The communication and consensus building skills that the IGEL program strengthens in its participants contribute to greater collaboration of the government, business, and non-governmental sectors in environmental decision making.

The IGEL program is a partnership between IGEL, Inc. and the Fanning Institute at the University of Georgia. IGEL, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) organization that raises a large share of the funds to pay for the program, selects the participants, and works with Fanning facilitators to develop program content and organization. Fanning Institute is primarily responsible for planning and facilitating the IGEL sessions with some services provided through in-kind contributions to the program.

IGEL participants attend sessions held in different locations throughout the state.

On September 13th 2010, three current IGEL participants visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for a pre-session visit before the IGEL Sapelo session. Their professions represented the broad spectrum represented by IGEL: Bret Danilowicz (Georgia Southern University, Statesboro), Shelly Lakly (The Nature Conservancy,Atlanta) and Kirk Milam (City of Rome – Public Services,Rome).

For more information about IGEL, visit their website: http://igeleaders.org/

For the last few months, I have been sending Scute, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center’s mascot, to my friends and family all over the world. From the University of Georgia to Uganda and from Maine to the mountains of Nepal, this little Loggerhead has been quite the world traveler! Follow Scute on his blog, Travels With Scute, as he continues to travel around the world learning and sharing his knowledge with others about turtles of all types!

-Melissa Quinn Daniel, AmeriCorps Education Member