#CareerTransition Milestones

February 13th marked the completion of another phase in my career transition. Those who have been following my “excellent adventure” may remember from some of my past articles, that my University of Connecticut #EncoreConnecticut program required me to participate in a Fellowship. Think of a Fellowship as an internship for people in UConn programs with decades of experience who act as consultants for nonprofit organizations in need of a leader to jumpstart a project or initiative. I chose two Fellowships. They were supposed to last 8 weeks each, and complete before graduation day this past December. My Fellowship with Save the Sound completed on schedule. My Fellowship with Appalachian Mountain Club started early and extended from 8 weeks to 10 weeks, then extended into 2024 and on into February. With surgery looming on Valentine’s Day (I know poor planning), we agreed that February 13th was the right point to wind down my involvement so that I could focus on recovery and PT (physical torture) after surgery. I didn’t want a slow recovery to impact my busy spring backpacking schedule (always an important consideration with me).

My time with AMC was fantastic, it was the perfect hybrid role that involved developing a new web portal which, if successful, will encourage more people with a more diverse demographic, to experience the beauty of our natural places and become active supporters of preserving these places and mitigating the impacts of climate change. The goals of the portal are two-fold: simplify the process that thousands of volunteer leaders use to create tens of thousands of activities annually for the AMC; and create a new and compelling online “participant journey” where visitors to the outdoors.org web site can discover exciting ways to #BeOutdoors on their terms. For me, the benefit of the Fellowship was much more about the connections I made with amazingly passionate, caring, and intelligent AMC staff across the organization. By being involved in cross-team and organization-wide meetings, I learned more about their deep commitment to sustainability and DEI in addition to creating an outdoor experience for all. It’s very different when you see actions in motion rather than just reading about goals in mission statements and strategy documents.

Each day as I look back, I am so glad that I decided to take on two Fellowships with two conservation-focused organizations instead of just one. It has been a lot of work on top of two education programs, but I wouldn’t change the decision. I enjoyed every minute of both Fellowships!

So, my UConn Encore program and associated Fellowships are behind me, what’s next? Lots of cool stuff!

I really loved my Fellowship project at Save the Sound, and I’m psyched that they’ve asked me to come back to present my findings and recommendations to a group comprised of members of the Board of Directors and the executive team in March. I love talking strategy, fielding questions, and gathering feedback from a diverse group on a topic I’m passionate about like this one!

Since I’m not seeking full-time work while I continue my learning and pursue my backpacking goals, the way I’ll continue to grow my experience and expand my network in my new field is through volunteer roles. I have a couple of very exciting ones that are almost finalized. When they are, I’ll be sure to write about them.

I’m definitely not done with my learning either! I have 5 more months to go in order to complete my Master Woodland Manager (MWM) certification with Connecticut Forest & Park Association . The second half of the program is much more active in the field than the first half was. Translated: Me + Woods = Psyched! After submitting the mid-year revision of my woodlands survey on a new 30-acre preserve near me, the CT DEEP Forester who provided the review & feedback offered to meet me at the preserve and do a walkthrough with me. I’m really excited and can’t wait to do it as soon as I get this dang orthopedic boot off my foot! I’ll learn so much by walking the property with him, seeing what his expert eye sees, and learning where my assessments are correct and where they require revisions.

Since I can’t go out walking in the woods for a few more weeks, I decided to start learning about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the ArcGIS product. I chose ArcGIS because it’s pervasive in nonprofit and government conservation organizations. I’m working on a few learning paths with ESRI (maker of ArcGIS) and it’s giving me a lot of ideas for creating the maps and proposed improvements of “my” preserve for my MWM woodlands survey.

Here’s my one gripe for the day… Esri promoted an annual student subscription-based license which gives students access to all self-paced online training for free.? Seemed like a no-brainer to me, but they conveniently slip one instructor-led class into EVERY learning path so that a student cannot achieve any learning path certifications without each one costing $2,000-3,000 because of that ILT requirement! It's particularly frustrating to us perfectionists, when we start but realize we can't finish the learning path. ESRI has missed the real value behind getting lots of students trained up at minimal cost to them … when we all go out into the workforce we will drive deeper adoption of the GIS we’ve learned into organizations that can pay for the product.

And on the exact day I reach the two-month mark after my surgery I’ll be off on the first of many planned backpacking trips … of course! Two-months is significant because my surgeon told me, “You have to give me 2 months for your foot to heal before going back out hiking!” So, two months to the day it is!

Stay tuned for more stories and excellent career adventures …