Field Site Community Engagement
You can read more details in my blog!
During my Costa Rican field season, I spoke with different community members to learn what conservation means in their lives. One group I spoke to was Costa Rica Best Chocolate. This is a family run organization which buys land that would be used for pineapple plantations and grows cacao. Rodolfo, the owner (on the left) told me that his work is conservation, not tourism. He is deeply interconnected with the community and provides opportunities for businesses and families through his work.
I also visited Lapa Verde, a nature reserve. The name means "green macaw". When I came to visit, there was a group of students coming to be scientists for a day. We walked through the reserve as they learned how to use camera traps and take vegetation measurements. I spoke with the managers and learned technqiues myself, as well as told them about a website that uses AI to identify species in photos. They explained that although they were a young reserve, they have already made great conservation impacts in the area, and continue to seek new scientists that want to collaborate on research.
The field station I worked at, La Selva (which means jungle in Spanish), is run by an organization called Organization for Tropical Studies. This organization provides resources and assistance to researchers, as well as undergraduate and graduate courses and eco-tourism opportunities. They also connected me with my local field assistant, Randall, whose knowledge of the forest and animals was crucial to the success of the project. I was able to speak in Spanish with Randall and other staff at La Selva and learn more about their work, opinions, and community needs.
|
Outreach In Houston
I currently volunteer at the Houston Botanic Garden. I usually work in the horticulture department, but I am planning to conduct a workshop with children to teach about camera traps and explain my project. I am a grad STRIVE liason at Rice, where we provide resources and workshops to address sexual and domestic violence, harassment, and discrimination on campus and beyond.
This summer I will have a elementary school teacher as an intern and conduct a research project with them. The knowledge, skills, and results will be crafted into a lesson for their classroom.
|