My name is Kassie and I am an AmeriCorps Environmental Educator at the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group in Belfair, Washington.
During my service, I have revamped old and outdated educational games, spent time with boy and girl scout groups, and started our Salmon in the Classroom presentation with 4th grade classes around the Mason County area. Even though my service is with a Salmon Enhancement Group, I still get the chance to work on other environmental topics because salmon are a vital species to 137 other animal species and are beneficial to the riparian areas around us. My favorite part of service has been interacting and teaching kids that are from multiple levels of knowledge. I have worked with kids that have family history fishing or working with salmon all of their life and I have worked with kids who live in the city who have never seen a salmon off the page of a book and have limited knowledge.
Serving as an AmeriCorps Environmental Education at HCSEG has already given me the confidence to create new content for kids and to be an effective educator about a topic.