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Dana Emerson ’03 will discuss the environmental outreach work she has done since graduating noon today in Van Wickle Hall room 108.
A magna cum laude graduate and with a double major in geology and anthropology & sociology, Emerson will discuss her experiences in the Student Conservation Association (SCA) internship program from July-December 2003 and the AmeriCorps program within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection since then.
Lunch will be provided free of charge to students and for $3 to faculty and staff. The event is part of the Geology Spring Seminar Series sponsored by the geology and environmental geosciences department.
At SCA, Emerson was stationed at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, working in a seasonal interpretive position. Upon returning to the East Coast, she began working in AmeriCorps with the Division of Watershed Management.
“AmeriCorps is basically the domestic Peace Corps, and I have a minimum of nine months to one year to complete my objectives in the Watershed Ambassador Program,” she says. “Some of these objectives include education and outreach for local schools and community groups, field work components such as biological and visual stream monitoring assessments, and a variety of other required trainings and service projects.”
Watershed Ambassadors monitor the rivers of New Jersey through the River Assessment Teams and Biological Assessment Teams volunteer monitoring programs. The members also work with community volunteers using these two volunteer monitoring techniques. Members are available to train local volunteers in these methods.
Emerson was a Marquis Scholar from Brick, N.J.
“My experiences at Lafayette enabled me to strengthen my independence and ambition, both in and out of the classroom, and gave me the skills and ability to seek career choices that meet my highest expectations,” she says. “I’ve learned never to settle for anything less than what Idesire.”
In the next Geology Spring Seminar lecture, Sheila Hutcherson, an underground mapping and ore control geologist for Newmont Mining Company, Carlin, Nev., will talk about “Geology from Beneath the Surface — Gold and Platinum Mining from a Geologist’s Point of View” Monday, March 22.
Previous Geology Seminar talks:
Annette Russo ’80, senior manager of global environment, health, and safety and mobility for telecommunications firm Avaya Inc. in Basking Ridge, N.J., Feb. 20 — “Trends in Environmental Programs and Legislation and Industry Response in a Post-9/11 World”
Guy Hovis, John H. Markle Professor of Geology, Feb. 6: “A European Sabbatical Travelogue — and Why I Destroy Minerals”