As a scientist, I am often
confronted with elaborate equations — calculating species densities, basal
areas, timber quantities, and so forth.
When you look at this blog, it could seem like an equation — flora,
fauna, worksite and spike site locations, Corps Members and Crew Leaders all
come together to equate to this VYCC experience. However, if you were able to quantify all these experiences
and get a number, that number wouldn’t be near the true value of the experience
because of innumerable externalities that cannot possibly be quantified. Sure, there is a tangible number of
flora and fauna that I found, you can even count how many waterbars we built
(somewhere in the range of 56 if my memory serves me right), but it is impossible to quantify the amount of
knowledge we all gained, the experiences we shared, the fun we had, the
leadership we developed, and even the physical, mental, and emotional strength
we all achieved.
What did I learn during this
experience? I hate to be clichéd,
but what I didn’t learn is a better question. This internship was probably like very
few internships out there — instead of the majority of what I learned coming
from peers higher up in the hierarchy (don’t get me wrong, I learned a lot
during training from the headquarters staff), most of what I learned this
summer came from feedback I received from my Co-Leader and the Corps Members
(CMs) I was leading. Essentially,
the majority of what I learned was about my own leadership style, how it
cohered (or didn’t) with that of my Co-Leader, and how it was effective (or
wasn’t) when communicating to my CMs and motivating them into action. One of my biggest take-home messages
related to my own leadership development was the importance of effective
communication. Whether it was trying
to motivate one CM the way I had just motivated another (it doesn’t work, trust
me — learning styles are just as varied as leadership styles) or effectively
and respectively disagreeing with my Co-Lead, communication became as difficult
a challenge as any 600-pound rock I moved and as educational an opportunity as
any University classroom experience I have ever had.
I learned a lot about my own
leadership style, self-motivation, teamwork, and technical abilities just to
name a few things. I feel as though
this first year as a Crew Leader was like a test to see if I could successfully
lead and manage a crew and to find out if I have what it takes to be a great
Crew Leader in the future. I think
this test challenged me and helped me improve my leadership abilities
substantially so when I return in the future, I will have a good idea of what
to expect and what I am capable of so as to make an even more enjoyable
experience for my future Corps Members.
I also learned how to become more patient with my Co-Leader, Corps
Members, and sponsors. I believe
one of my biggest challenges that I overcame that related to patience came
during the Corps Members’ Weely Evaluations; my Co-Leader loved to talk and the
first couple weeks I barely had an opportunity to say anything and was
wondering if I should be patient and wait for an opportunity to give my CM
feedback or if I should jump in whenever I got a chance because I knew that
opportunity would never present itself — the challenge was figuring out how to
balance jumping in to give feedback and when to sit back and be patient, hoping
I would get a chance to speak up.
Last year I learned a lot about
different teaching, leading, and learning styles but until this year — when I
challenged myself and my crew to try different styles — I didn’t fully realize
just how many there are! One of
the best things I learned from my crew this year was learning how to be
flexible with your teaching and communication styles — as I mentioned before, what
would motivate one CM into action doesn’t necessarily motivate the other seven;
it was very enjoyable getting to know what motivated each of my Corps Members.
As important as it was to learn
things from my Corps Members, I did learn a lot from my trainers at Head
Quarters before the field season started up and again in the field from our
sponsors. This being my second
season at the VYCC, I did know a lot of the basics, like how to use different
tools and maintain them, what the policies are, and the basic flow of a VYCC
workday. On the other hand, after
this year, I now have three entire notebooks full of notes from Head Quarters
Staff on group dynamics, sex and gender identity, driving a van, specifics of
each of my CM’s leadership development throughout the season, and so much more. Once we got into the field, I noticed
how there isn’t enough notebook paper in the world to be able to prepare myself
for leading a crew and implementing all those things I just learned. In the “classroom” we also took notes
on different conservation techniques and then implemented our newly-learned
techniques in the outdoor classroom at the training center (simply, the trails
behind the Monitor Barn) and eventually in the field during the actual work
season. Since the Headquarters
Staff is made up of recent college graduates with focuses in outdoor
leadership, alternative education, finance, and business to name a few, we
didn’t get many specialists in the field of conservation (there’s a good
question for you: why isn’t there a
conservation major at most universities?). There were a few outside trainers that came in from
trail-building companies and the like but the true conservation education came
in the field when we got to spend long hours of the day talking with our
sponsors about what brought them to the field they are in. Some of my fondest memories came from
our White River Partnership sponsor, Greg Russ. Greg has a degree in history so he loves to talk about the
land-use history of the different places we worked and is a very knowledgeable
resources for any questions regarding erosion (he even gave me a small
demonstration of the three different types of erosion that I just so happened
to learn again in my plant and soil science class, but without the interactive
outdoor classroom demonstration), riparian ecosystems, and our sad history of
gravel mining in Vermont streams.
Being a lifelong fisherman and fly-fishing guide, Greg was also a subtle
advocate of what I like to call stream
restoration and I would often call him Hayduke as he would start to go off
on tangents about dams and mutter kiddingly, “just a few well-placed charges;
that’s all it would take.” Having
a similar mindset on those issues myself, I would often present my views on the
matter and as Greg and I would talk about these ecological issues, it not only
increased our own understanding of the issues but my CMs would jump in here and
there and would walk away at the end of the conversation having gained a lot of
insight from Greg and (I would like to think) myself.
Now
let’s see what skills and knowledge I can improve upon next summer…
