Invest in Nature's Future

It is no surprise that I enjoy spending time in nature. Even as a child, I would prefer to be outside, barefoot running around than inside. To this day I still prefer my feet to touch grass or dirt than a hard floor. As a child, whenever someone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I may not have known the specifics, but I knew I wanted to do something with the environment.

Growing up and as a young adult in college, and later grad school, I was fortunate to have so many people supporting my ambitions, however, crazy they may have seemed, to work in conservation. I have worked and volunteered with several organizations across Iowa and the world on different conservation projects, from studying chimpanzees in Senegal, to creating educational materials for schools in Madagascar, to restoring prairie and studying water quality in Iowa. 

While there was definitely a lot of time and effort put into these positions, I cannot overlook the wonderful people that made these opportunities possible. Professors, friends of former coworkers, and simply people willing to take a chance on me all played a huge part in getting me where I am today. 

I am so grateful for those opportunities and want to provide the same to others. When I joined Prairie Rivers of Iowa, one of my goals was to start an internship program for high school and college students. Internships and development opportunities for young people not only help them develop skills to be successful later in their careers, but it also helps foster innovation, resilience, partnerships, and so much more for both the organizations and the individuals involved. Prairie Rivers of Iowa aspires to offer opportunities for young people to pursue their dreams of working in conservation. This includes offering internships focused on water quality, pollinator and prairie conservation, communications and marketing, or any other conservation work they are interested in. 

Organizations like ours cannot do the work alone. We rely on partnerships, volunteers, interns, and donors to help us protect Iowa's natural resources and educate the public about why it is important to do so. 

Help us invest in the next generation of conservation leaders. Help us invest in the next generation of problem-solvers. Help us invest in Iowa's future. Help us raise funds so we can provide opportunities like the ones I, and so many others, had which helped us get to where we are today.