Tag: outreach

Steelhead Release in Copeland Creek

- Wendy Leave a comment

This semester, I helped to organize a Steelhead Trout release on campus, as part of a program where elementary school students release trout that they had raised in the classroom. Back in February, I was approached by Michael Knappman, who volunteers at University Elementary at La Fiesta Elementary in Rohnert Park. One of their classes was participating the the Water Agency’s ‘Steelhead in the Classroom’ program (https://www.sonomawater.org/steelhead-in-the-classroom), and would have fry to release in May. Since, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has designated Copeland among the acceptable release tributaries of the Russian River, Michael wanted to know if I’d be interested in helping him arrange for the fish to be released on the stretch of Copeland Creek that runs through the Sonoma State campus.

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Roberts Family Development Center Outreach, 2018

- Wendy Leave a comment

Once again I helped introduce a bunch of local youths to the wonders of biology, by tabling during this year’s Roberts Family Development Center visit to the SSU campus. As always, it was loads of fun . . . you can read my blog post about last year’s event for more details in general. SSU published an article about this year’s event, and I thought I’d share that here (since I didn’t remember to take any photos of my own this time around).

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Sonoma State University hosts largest youth campus tour ever

- Wendy Leave a comment

Here’s an article in the Press Democrat about the outreach I took part in last week at SSU:

Photo from Press Democrat

ELOÍSA RUANO GONZÁLEZ

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | July 13, 2017, 9:13PM

It was a campus takeover.

Hundreds of elementary and middle school children swarmed the cafeteria, dorms, quads and halls of Sonoma State University Thursday for what’s becoming an annual tradition.

It’s the second year the Rohnert Park campus has hosted “I Am the Future Day” for the Sacramento nonprofit Roberts Family Development Center, which provides academic and other services to hundreds of economically disadvantaged children and their families. The event is intended to give children a “taste of college” to encourage them to pursue higher education.

 

You can read the entire article here: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7185718-181/sonoma-state-gives-kids-taste?artslide=0

Campus-Wide Outreach Event!

- Wendy 1 Comment

Taking a quick break from Summer School posts to share something that happened on campus today: the school hosted about 450 elementary-aged students from the Roberts Family Development Center, a CDF Freedom School. Departments from all across campus set up hands-on activities, the Rohnert Park Fire Department and Police Department came out to say, “Hi,” and it seemed as though a good time was had by all!

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Animals of Our Creeks, Rivers, and Marshes

- Wendy St. John Leave a comment

Had an amazing evening with some of the folks at the Sonoma Land Trust – They graciously invited me to speak as part of their 40th anniversary speaker’s series, and I gave a talk on wildlife in freshwater habitats in Sonoma County. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

SLTMay16FINAL.jpg

What a great audience . . . they were engaged, and they laughed at my stupid jokes (hahaha), and then they asked me nearly an hour’s worth of questions after I finished my presentation. Really grateful for this opportunity to talk about some of the cool critters we have living in our local waters! (And I learned loads of stuff from them, as well . . . it was a wonderfully well-informed bunch of people). The SLT folks were all really wonderful, too. *hugs* SO MUCH FUN!!!!