VINS Educators Win Prestigious Awards

Educators at VINS (Vermont Institute of Natural Science)
recently won two of the three annual awards given by the New England
Environmental Education Alliance.
Jenna Guarino, director of VINS's Environmental Citizenship program, was
recognized with the 2003 Non-formal Environmental Educator Award and
VINS's Community Mapping Program received the Maria Pirie Environmental
Program Award.
Guarino was cited as the education professional working outside the formal
classroom setting who has made "continuous and enduring contributions to
environmental education." Guarino's Environmental Citizenship (EC) program
helps secondary students learn to balance the needs of humans and wildlife
through hands-on classroom activities, outdoor fieldwork, and community
projects.
Nearly 100 teachers have participated in EC workshops, enabling the
program to reach by extension over 35,000 students. In 2003, the programs
River Stewards Initiative received a three-year, $92,000 grant from the
Upper Valley Community Foundation's Wellborn Ecology Fund to expand an
educational unit on Atlantic Salmon to include native trout, water-quality
protocols, streambank restoration, and an equipment lending library.
VINS's Community Mapping Program, a partnership with the Orton Family
Foundation, was cited by the New England Environmental Education Alliance
as an outstanding environmental education program that is "innovative and
creative, easily replicated, has a strong evaluation component, and
results in demonstrated action by participants." The Community Mapping
Program focuses on middle- and high-school students who, together with
community partners such as conservation commissions, conduct fieldwork and
use sophisticated tools including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to
explore their communities and address specific local needs. The Community
Mapping Program has received multi-year grants from the Upper Valley
Community Foundation's Wellborn Ecology Fund and the Ward M. and Mariam C.
Canaday Foundation, among other funding sources. For more information,
visit the Community Mapping Program website at www.communitymap.org.
VINS (Vermont Institute of Natural Science) is a nonprofit, membership
organization located in Woodstock, Vermont, which has regional offices in
Montpelier and Manchester. It will open its new VINS Nature Center near
Quechee Gorge in the spring of 2004. Founded in 1972, VINS's mission is to
protect Vermont's natural heritage through education and research. VINS's
educational programs serve more than 20,000 adults and 35,000 students
each year. VINS is a leading research center for the study of migratory
songbirds, common loons, peregrine falcons, and other threatened or
endangered species. VINS also maintains one of North America's most
impressive collections of live raptors - hawks, eagles, falcons, and owls
- and has treated and released thousands of injured wild birds of all
species. For information on membership and programs, visit the VINS web
site, www.vinsweb.org.