WSP Alumni have had immense success finding natural resource, education and community outreach employment after service!
We are very proud of our Alumni and have begun featuring them to show the world what are great job they are doing.
If you are interested in being a featured Alumni let us know and we would love to add you to our collection of Super Stars!
Our Alumni Site Feature for September goes to...
DFG Fortuna
Name: Chris Ramsey
Service Years: '97-'99
Sites: Humboldt Fish Action Council & DFG Fortuna
Age: 35
Hometown: Ontario, CA
Job Title and Description: Fisheries Biologist- Administers the Fisheries Restoration Grant Program
Favorite WSP Memory: Seeing her very 1st Coho spawner at the HFAC weir.
WSP Fish Tale: To this day Chris swears she saw an Elk in Jackson Demonstration Forest. We believe you Chris!
Words of Wisdom: Never say no to an opportunity offered to you in WSP, even if it means very, very little sleep over 10 months, you will probably never regret it!
Testimonial: "This experience helped me to fall in love with the fish and now I love what I do!"
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Name: Florie Consolati
Service Year: 2007
Site: DFG Eureka
Age: 27
Hometown: Lee, MA
Job Title and Description: Fisheries Biologist
Favorite WSP Memory: During spring training Florie and 2 other members hosted a cook-off competition between Italian, Mexican and Chinese fare. Throughout the event they all pretended that they couldn't speak English and video taped hilarious arguments in the hybrid languages they created. It still makes Florie giggle.
WSP Fish Tale: During a spawner survey a member fell in and almost got washed away after her machete shealth dropped into to the river with her after it. The river was running high, fast and cold and topped the members waders. Thinking quickly and calmly Florrie helped the member out with her gaff and they called it day. Good work Florie!
Words of Wisdom: In WSP, work hard and play hard. In the end it's worth it!
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Thank you Year 15 Alumni Julie C. for making this connection!
Heidi Lakics: MythBuster’s Favorite Urban Arborist
(And Watershed Stewards Project Alumn!)
Heidi Lakics took a job planting trees in the city because of her passion for the environment. Little did she suspect that her profession would lead to her being featured on the popular television program MythBusters.
Lakics (’06) is the Planting Manager at Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) in San Francisco, a non-profit organization that improves urban environments by planting trees. Lakics’ job is all about planting trees in unusual locations, such as a city sidewalk, the blacktop surrounding an elementary school or the slope of a hill in a densely populated neighborhood.
Lakics’s work with FUF led to her appearance as a tree expert on the Discovery Channel’s television show Mythbusters. “My job has a lot of emotional rewards, so this experience was icing on the cake. It was great to be recognized,” says Lakics.
The episode, which originally aired Nov. 4, 2009, explored a myth about an exploding Christmas tree that had frozen after a leak in a liquid nitrogen processing plant. To conduct their experiment, the show’s interns, dubbed “myth-terns,” dumped hundreds of gallons of liquid nitrogen over a pine tree until its core temperature reached 330 degrees Fahrenheit. In the end, the tree failed to explode even after being hit with several rounds of buckshot.
Lakics was contacted both for her expertise – apparently tree cells are surrounded by air space to allow for expanding water as temperatures plummet – but also to receive a donation from the show on the FUF’s behalf. MythBusters apparently thought it would be wise to plant a few trees after trying to explode one on national television.
The media coverage was exciting, but it hasn’t distracted Lakics from her everyday duties, rooted in her commitment to sustainability. After graduating from HSU with a degree in environmental science, Lakics was able to turn her love for Humboldt and the environment into a job. First she joined AmeriCorps and served two years in the Watershed Stewards Project, then spent a year working for the Fortuna branch of the California Conservation Corps. “I wasn’t ready to leave Humboldt,” says Lakics.
During her second year with AmeriCorps she began searching for a permanent job. When she saw the want ad for the FUF, it seemed like her dream job. “As soon as I saw the posting, I knew it was for me. It was exactly what I was hoping to be doing with my life,” says Lakics. She has since been with the conservation group for two years and has become a certified arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture.
HSU provided Lakics with the skills she now uses in her career. “In my communications with the public, I use a lot of what I learned in the classes for my Environmental Ethics minor,” says Lakics. She also uses her experience as volunteer to motivate others. “It’s easier to motivate people to plant trees in the rain when you’ve spent many hours doing it yourself. My semester as president of the HSU Energy Independence Fund taught me how to organize and rally troops behind a cause.”
Lakics is not the only alumna working for FUF. Of the 11 other staff members, the company’s Tree Care Coordinator, Heather Ellison, is also an HSU grad.
Lakics believes that anyone can make a difference by following their passion. “Planting one tree on a block can be the beginning of a forest if you take with the people around you and share the seeds of knowledge. Sometimes a small effort can result in a big change.”
The featured Alumni for June 2010 is...
Ryan Wells
Service Year: 2002
Site: Department of Fish and Game, Fortuna
Age: 31
Hometown: Chico, CA
Ryan is currently the Project Manager for the North Coast Regional Land Trust in Arcata. He began as an intern and has been full time since 2008.
Some of his favorite WSP moments include working with students during the Real Science Curriculum and other environmental education opportunities; learning more about watershed processess for his understanding; and increasing his knowledge about important natural resource conservation and preservation issues.
WSP Fish Tales: One day he was conducting a carcass survey using a dull machete on an overly rotten fish. He hacked and hacked, until eventually the carcass was splattered all over him. He then got the bright idea to mask the smell with bay leaves from a nearby tree, and rubbed the leaves all over his arms and chest. These two potent scents blended to create an aroma that he had to leab into the stream to remove!
Alumni Words of Wisdom: "Use this opportunity wisely. Show your work ethic and make connections. You never know where this job will lead you!
Thank you Ryan and Congratulations!
