Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

Moving from Apple Valley, Minnesota to Milwaukee, Wisconsin was an experience that not only changed the way I view my surroundings, but one that still motivates me to strive for my intellectual goals of success, as well. I was able to take many concepts away from that experience: I discovered my love for nature and environmental conservation, I noticed the correlations between environmental health and human behaviors; and I learned how important it is to stay focused on my goals of success. I want to be an Environmentalists and I know it will take a lot of work, but I will do all that I can to reach my goal of becoming an environmentalists. I choose to do an Apprentice Ecologist project on behalf of the Nicodemus Wilderness Project, because I strongly believe that raising awareness on wildlife preservation not only opens eyes to the problem, but shows stewardship to my community. I am a creative writing major at Milwaukee High School of the Arts. I really enjoy writing childrenâ€™s literature, I put all of my ideas together and I created a book called Great Minds Think Alike.

I wrote a children's book about endangered species and wildlife preservation, I also encouraged my friends to write stories too. I told them to write stories that would help raise awareness on human interferences on wildlife, or other conservation issues. I expected for us to all go to our local libraries to read our stories to children.
I feel like it is important to raise awareness to people that are younger because they are more likely to listen and process the information given to them. It is important for young minds to know about environmental issues because it not only makes them more aware of the cleanliness of their community, but it fosters the idea that it only takes one person to make a difference. As far as reading the story to the group of students, we didn't get a chance to do that.
At first I didn't realize how much difficulty I would have with this project. I asked five of my peers to write their stories and have them done by a certain day. I reminded them throughout the time to be working on their stories, but at the date that I expected the stories to be due, only one person had finished their story. As a result I extended the deadline for an extra two weeks. In that time only one person proceeded to write their story. Then came winter break. I had planned for me and my two peers to meet up to read our stories, but I couldn't get in touch with one of them. Overall, three of us finished our stories but we did not get the chance to read them. The pictures that I uploaded were pages from two out of the three stories that were finished.
Human actions are causing certain species to go extinct, and I feel like it is important to raise awareness about this issue. It is important to protect areas that sustain wildlife, because the animals that are being affected by human interferences, are beneficial to the stability of the ecosystem, in which is taken from them.
My project, if completed, I feel, would benefited not only my community, but the communities of my friends and ones of the students that we read our stories to. It has such a benefit because the act of writing the stories alone, allowed for me and my peers to take away a positive lesson from this experience. Me and my friends were able to show environmental stewardship and leadership. Even though we did not get to educated younger students in time before the deadline I still intend on finishing the project when I get in touch with one of my peers who wrote her story. Once we finish the project, we would have had a benefit on the children because they can take the information, that we give them, and begin to live more sustainable lives.
It felt good knowing that I was attempting on doing something that would raise awareness to wildlife problems, because they exist in our own communities. We all had one goal- to educate others of environmental issues. My project allowed for us to build a stronger friendship and work together even though we did not get to completely achieve our goal in time.