| ON THE LEARNING PATH: A new batch of interns starts at River Bend Nature Center |
By: Pauline Schreiber
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Posted: Saturday, September 6, 2008 12:36 am
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New interns began their training this week at River Bend and will teach their first students Monday. They are Donna Schafer, top left; Laura Ritenour, top right; Leah Penn Boris, bottom left; Natalie Spencer, bottom right. (Pauline Schreiber/Daily News)
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FARIBAULT — Donna Schafer isn’t your typical intern.
The 55-year-old mother of four earned her college degree back in 1978 from Ambassador College in Pasadena, Calif. For this next school year, the Foley, Minn., resident will spend the week at the intern house at River Bend Nature Center and go home on weekends to be with her husband, Randy, and the youngest of her children, a high school senior.
Schafer is exploring a new career direction with her internship. Her last job was on the staff of a living history farm, the Oliver Kelley Farm owned by the Minnesota Historical Society.
“I have a goal of working for a nonprofit, and working for River Bend will be give me experience in that direction,” Schafer said.
Schafer and three other interns will teach their first group of students on Monday.
“It’s really amazing how much trust the staff has in us as new interns that we can do the job and handle our first students,” Schafer said.
Schafer said one of her biggest challenges so far has been trying to stay away from mothering her co-interns. With them being half her age, that might be the toughest part of her internship.
The three other school-year interns are:
• Laura Ritenour, 22, of Angola, Ind.;
• Natalie Spencer, 22, of St. Paul;
• Leah Penn Boris, 25, of Seattle.
For Penn Boris, River Bend’s prairie is the most intriguing part of the nature center and an ecosystem she has not had much experience with.
“I’m an ecologist,” she said. “I taught biology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as I earned my master’s degree in ecology.”
She earned her undergraduate degree in biology from Pacific University at Forest Grove, Ore.
Penn Boris enjoyed teaching but she knew if she became a college professor she would have to spend most of her time in an office or classroom. So she applied for a Faribault River Bend internship to work with youngsters in the outdoors.
Ritenour has a degree in wildlife, with a minor in psychology, from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. She told how River Bend staff earlier in the week set up an “Amazing Race” for the interns, across the 750 acres that make up the nature center, to get them familiar with its trails.
“What you learned right away is how diverse River Bend is,” Ritenour said. “There are woods, prairies, river land and wetlands.”
Spencer is a recent graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield with a degree in English and a minor in environmental studies.
“I’m leaning toward working with children as a career, and I liked the idea of being a naturalist and working outside most of the day with kids,” Spencer said. “This internship is a great opportunity to learn how to do that, and find out how much I like doing it.”
— Staff writer Pauline Schreiber may be reached at 333-3127. |
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