Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

In my opinion, global citizenship and environmental stewardship is much more than actually doing your part, it is actually caring about what you are doing. I have had a number of opportunities to do my part in global citizenship and environmental stewardship, and they have truly shaped who I am today.
As I trudged along the beach in the wee hours of the morning, I started counting down the minutes until my â€œTurtle Patrolâ€ shift was over. My uneventful evening had put me in the sourest mood of all time, and the only thing I wanted was sleep. Amidst my unreasonable anger, an unusual sound disrupted my cynicism; an enormous creature began crawling up the beach with great determination. Once she had found a comfortable nesting area, she began bulldozing through the sand to make a safe home for her offspring. Witnessing the willpower of this Leatherback was enough to change my life, but she continued to amaze me. This moment will remain ingrained in my mind indefinitely.
Early June of 2008, several other students and I traveled to Costa Ricaâ€™s Caribbean coast to carry on a conservation project that had been started years prior by local ecologists. Our mission was to protect Leatherback sea turtle nests from tides, poachers, and other natural threats as well as share our findings with local students. Because nesting times commonly take place during the wee hours of the morning, we had to set alarms anywhere between one and three a.m. to assist biologists in improving conservation efforts for the sea turtles. Getting used to this routine was difficult, but more than worth it.
As the monstrous animal continued her routine, I remained speechless. She used her back flippers to dig a nest that was about an arm length deep and when she finishing, she began laying her eggs. Unharmed by the presence of nurturing humans, she continued her habitual instincts. Before returning to the ocean, she had laid over 80 eggs. Of these 80, unfortunately only 10% would survive, this is part of the reason the Leatherbackâ€™s population is so scarce today. In order to prevent locals from poaching the delicate eggs, our group relocated the eggs to a less obvious location and hid the evidence of motherâ€™s arrival, but still allowed the offspring to find their way to the sea.
As I gazed off into the luminous sea, I watched the mother safely return home; and it hit me. I had just made a difference in the world. One hour prior, I was positive that the only good thing in the world was a bed, but sleep was the furthest thing from my mind at that point. When I tossed the last handful of sand over the newly created nest, I thought about how moving it was that I, a nobody from Meeker, Colorado, had just likened the chances of 80 sea turtles making it to the ocean. At that moment, the issue became bigger than itself and I knew my environmental stewardship would not stop with sea turtles.