Meet our Nature Explorers staff team for Summer 2023:
Camp Co-Director: Kristina Weeks joined BEEC in 2012. She loves exploring with youth of all ages to discover together the wonders of nature. She enjoys tracking in the sand mud and snow, playing games becoming animals, and creating nature arts and crafts. Kristina grew up in Papua New Guinea and Botswana with parents who loved adventure, which instilled in her a great love of the natural world. At Antioch University New England, she earned her M.S. in Environmental Education, with a focus on a continuum of outdoor and place-based education through the elementary and middle grades. Kristina has always had a connection with cats, so one of her favorite local mammals is the bobcat. One of her favorite plants is the dandelion for their brilliant color and that the whole plant is edible; and their name, for their jagged leaves, is derived from French “dent-de-lion” meaning tooth of the lion, oh – another cat connection! (Director for weeks Jul 3, Jul 17, Aug 7, Aug 14)
Camp Co-Director: Sarah Tsalbins is happiest when rambling in wild places and working with young people. She loves that she gets to do both with BEEC. For 15+ years Sarah has created and led learning experiences everywhere from museums to riparian zones to botanic gardens to traditional classrooms. As an educator, she loves to share her passions for ecology and history while nurturing a sense of curiosity and interdependence. Sarah earned a teaching credential and M.A. in Education from Mills College and taught for five years at public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she also worked as a museum and environmental educator. After two decades on the west coast, she is happy to be re-rooting in southern Vermont, one of the first places where her sense of joyful connection with the natural world bloomed as a child. Sarah enjoys bird-nerding, running in the woods, riding her bike, reading, and learning to play guitar. Shooting stars (dodecatheon) are one of her favorite plants. She’s also enchanted by the mutualistic magic of lichen. She really likens wolf lichen. (Director for weeks Jun 26, Jul 10, Jul 24, Jul 31)
Camp Co-Instructor: Fiona Goodman grew up in Brattleboro, attended BEEC camps as a child and was a BEEC camp instructor last summer. She especially loved the Forest of Mystery, and performed in it one year. She was previously a camp counselor at the Traditional Music and Art Camp through the BMC, where she helped kids learn local music and stories, and helped them write and put on their own short play. She is a rising junior at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville. She loves her rescue dog, Roxy, and rode horses for many years as a child. She is looking forward to returning to BEEC and exploring nature with campers after a long school year in the city. (Co-instructor for all camp weeks)
Camp Co-Instructor: Anna Cummings has lived in Brattleboro since she was three. She has been hiking and exploring the outdoors since before she could even walk. She is full of energy 24/7, and loves to see the world through the eyes of children. She often organizes and hosts accessible events for teens through Brooks Memorial Library. In the future, she hopes to spend a year abroad in France as an au pair. When not organizing events and attending local concerts, she spends much of her time hiking. Anna loves to search for insects, cool rocks, and trees to climb. Her favorite insects are ants, her favorite rock is any climbable glacial erratic, and her favorite type of tree to climb is hemlock. (Co-instructor for all camp weeks)
Camp Co-Instructor: Molly Schoales grew up in Vermont and spent a good amount of their childhood at BEEC’s summer and winter camps, which fostered a lifelong love of and respect for nature. Returning as an adult, now with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from UMASS Amherst, they are excited to help continue the cycle. Molly has previously worked as a lead counsellor at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science’s nature camp. They love climbing trees and catching frogs, and can often be found with a good fantasy novel. (Co-instructor for weeks July 3, July 17, July 24, July 31, Aug 14)
Camp Co-Instructor: Kate Weeks is thrilled to be at BEEC again this spring. She grew up in the immediate area and was even a camper at BEEC every summer for many years. She loves working with kids and has worked in child care for more than eight years. Kate has always loved watching a child’s curiosity and wonder for the world around them. She enjoys spending time outside in nature as much as she can. A favorite activity when she’s with kids is exploring outside and she’s a huge fan of puddle jumping after a big rain storm. She works during the school year as a para educator at Vernon Elementary School. Her favorite plant is the daffodil for their smell and their determination to grow back every year, even in the rocky soil of Southern Vermont. (Co-instructor for weeks Jun 26, Jul 3, Jul 10, Jul 17)
Camp Co-Instructor: Emiline Chipman is fascinated by the relationships between critters and loves to facilitate emergent education that follows children’s curiosities. She grew up in a house with a kitchen table perennially filled with craft supplies, in a family that loves playing in Michigan’s freshwater lakes, the daughter of a carpenter and an artist. Today she loves to block print bugs and beetles, dye fabric with redwood cones, watercolor portraits of mushrooms, and do nature crafts of almost any kind. She has had the pleasure of teaching humans ages 2-40 in kitchens, on urban farms, in the Adirondacks, under Redwood canopies, in canoes, on rock walls, in classrooms, at beaches, and online. Now, having just moved to New England, she hopes to learn all about our local ecosystem from the seasoned educators at BEEC and the children who have grown up here. (Co-instructor for weeks July 31, Aug 7, Aug 14)
Camp Co-Instructor: Violett LaCroix has just finished her first year at the University of Vermont pursuing a degree in secondary education, with a concentration in earth sciences. Violett has been going to BEEC summer camps ever since she was in fourth grade and BEEC played a foundational role in her journey to becoming a science educator. The hands-on learning and fun that happens at BEEC inspired what she hopes her curriculum will reflect in a public school setting. This summer she looks forward to working with the campers again and using each day to teach and learn. Her favorite activities at camp are making art with mud and flowers and the power of the sun, as well as answering questions about how things work. (Co-instructor for weeks June 26, July 24)
Nature Photo Explorers 2023:
Co-Instructor: Kelsy Alan lives with her adventure dog Buddy in their off-grid tiny house in the woods. Together they enjoy hiking, kayaking, snowboarding, and any excuse to be outside. Kelsy has a background in land stewardship and nontraditional outdoor education. She has Bachelor’s degrees in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Science, and has had opportunities to play and work in the woods with kids of all ages through various positions with BEEC, nature museums, schools, and land trusts across New England. Kelsy particularly loves getting excited with folks about finding small creatures and eating wild plants!
Along with a co-instructor from In-Sight Photography Project.