Last month, a group of excited young minds set out to embark on Global Explorers’ pilot Climate Change Academy traveling to Alaska.  The program was piloted with huge help from our awesome partner, National Park Service.  We were lucky enough to sit down with Angie, who is part of the Climate Change Response Program at the National Park Service, to hear her thoughts behind her motivation for partnering with Global Explorers... 

1. What prompted you to want to work with Global Explorers?

Climate change is an incredibly important issue and it is something people alive today are going to be dealing with for the rest of their lives. Our program, the Climate Change Response Program, is really good at reaching an adult audience but we felt we really needed to reach a younger audience and do it in a way that was inspiring, place-based, experiential, and hopeful. We wanted to give them a different perspective of climate change than what they would hear in the popular media. We knew of the success of the projects that you guys have been doing with the Night Skies and Natural Sounds Programs, so we really thought that this would be a fruitful partnership.

2. What inspires you about the mission of our organization?

For me, in my own life, those outdoor, experiential experiences that I had with teachers that actually got me out into the natural world are really what helped to drive the career path that I’ve taken. I think that those experiences for kids are just critical. Any one experience that they have growing up could shape who they become as an adult, so the mission of Global Explorers – to get kids into nature and to be responsible global citizens – along with facilitating that connection with the natural world – is what I really think is lacking in the traditional school system. So, having that one experience out in a park may be the thing that inspires them to become a park ranger when they grow up, or work in the field of science, or work to help communities and ecosystems across the globe.