STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION (SCA)
Erin Statler

Another wonderful intern this past summer from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania), Erin Statler also attended Oxford University in England. In the past, Erin was an intern with America’s Promise: Alliance for Youth (the organization formed by Colin Powel to help disadvantaged children). A student athlete trainer on campus who was previously a political intern for Peter Delenick in McLean, Virginia, Erin had also been a volunteer at the Potomac Overlook Nature Center of the Virginia Regional Park Service where she helped with tree maintenance. In addition, she worked with underprivileged youngsters in Lancaster, Pennsylvania at Nilangro House. Erin speaks Spanish and in December of 2006 following her internship, Erin visited Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. As part of the varsity women’s golf team at her college, Erin traveled to Puerto Rico, Canada, Egypt, Wales, Bahamas, Belize, and the Philippines. She belonged to the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship and the Executive Board of the Environmental Action Alliance. When Erin applied to the Washington Internship Program in early February, she requested a placement in environmental conservation, community building, health, education, magazine journalism, or women’s issues, gender equality, arts and entertainment, or possibly museum work. Undaunted by Erin’s multidisciplinary interests, WIP placed her three months later at the Student Conservation Association where she worked from May 3 through August 11 while living at home in Arlington, Virginia. Five months after an internship that Erin claimed – along with Edna Kallon at the National Peace Corps – was the “best internship of all,” Erin went to Mississippi (not far from Biloxi) to participate in a Gulf-Coast Rebuilding project under the auspices of Franklin and Marshall College where she constructed drywall and otherwise reclaimed homes destroyed in disastrously destructive hurricanes.

Erin did a great deal of writing for the Student Conservation Association where she contributed articles under her own byline to SCA’s Urban Update, a quarterly publication. For example, she drafted pieces on Mount Ranier in Washington state, Yellowstone National Park, and an intern from Saint Lawrence University who was doing a joint internship with Congressman Rothman and the National Park Service. In conjunction with the media relations officer at SCA, Erin helped conduct a survey and wrote an article on diversity in the conservation field for Pick up and Go! – a publication of Earthwise Productions. Erin also helped plan an SCA alumni event at Rock Creek Park that included a nature walk, a lunch, and a workshop on leadership and peer education. From invitations to transportations and thank-you notes, Erin handled various aspects of public-relations work. In the field, Erin helped teach courses offered by the Conservation Leadership Corps. This outdoor six-week service project involved tree-planting, building bridges in forests to make them more pedestrian-friendly, and working with high-school students in the D.C area. Similarly, Erin took part in four-day urban environment education project in mid July where she taught seminars on the Student Conservation Association as well as pollution, conservation, the watershed / water cycle system, and the predator/prey relationship in nature. This hands-on experience was offered in connection with Americorps, whose post-graduate leaders came to the Washington, D.C. area for a jobs-related convention.

Erin attended meetings at Haynes Point at the Capital Region Headquarters for the National P{ark Service. She assisted in planning the upcoming sixtieth anniversary of the Student Conservation Association, which was founded in 1947. In October of next year, a series of events will take place, including an essay contest for college students and a year-long celebration of SCA, whose largest office is located in Charlestown, New Hampshire where five-days of commemoration will begin with ceremonies culminating in Washington, D.C. Among other odd jobs Erin did were posting job openings on the SCA alumni Internet, answering phones, and working with a staff of around eleven individuals. Erin reported that her supervisor informed her that she was “the best intern he ever had” during a long association with the Washington Internship Program. Erin worked five days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. She most enjoyed the development of “professional skills like networking, oral and written communication, publishing, and handling situations over the phone and in meetings.”

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