Stewards VISTA Liz Sautter just started her service year with The Wilds, a Safari Park in Ohio, in February. It seems like she’s already diving right in to her service working with volunteer outreach, completing wildlife camera checks, and helping develop this year’s Outstanding Wilds Learning (OWL) program. 

For this quarter Liz was able to support and coordinate 30 volunteer leaders to bring groups of students to The Wilds to help with removal of invasive species, native tree planting, and amphibian surveys. Liz has also assisted in interviewing 20 youth for The Wilds, OWLs program, a summer teen volunteer program, where they will focus on forest inventories, Salamander studies, and assisting with other volunteer and research projects. Liz was able to talk to these candidates about what to expect from future job interviews, what they could expect working at The Wilds, and encourage interaction with their community. Lastly, Liz presented to 15 volunteer leaders about what she hopes to achieve and what roles she hopes to play as an AmeriCorps VISTA with The Wilds. 

I hope that the kids I work with this summer are inspired to see themselves as potential scientists and world citizens, and that they not only learn about nature and science, rather learn what they are capable of. What I want generally from this program is to be able to at least improve the tiny corner of the world I live in. I hope to play the role of not only a volunteer coordinator and ecologist, but of someone anyone in my organization would feel comfortable turning to for help.”

Liz hopes to keep bringing more volunteers, learn to communicate with the community, and bring more opportunities to The Wilds.