We are so excited to welcome four summer interns this year, introduced below and seen in this group photo from a June 24 group lunch. Many of our interns are Environmental Defenders’ scholarship recipients from the year prior – a connection that has worked very nicely to help maintain continuity and support for young people who have a passion for the environment and conservation. Our paid internship program is in its fourth summer and is made possible through our annual fundraising and membership dinner held in March of each year.
Current interns
Jay Strang
Jay (below photo) graduated from Woodstock North High School last Spring. He began his college career at MCC but then transferred to Oregon State University where he is majoring in geological oceanography under the Water Resource Science degree program to obtain a career as an oceanographer. Jay will be interning with the Water and Natural Resources Protection Action Team focusing mainly on water resources projects and providing related information for our new website, as well as helping with restoration work in the prairies that we manage.
Grace Rogers
Grace (below photo, middle) graduated from Prairie Ridge High School last Spring. She is now a student at Carleton College in Minnesota and will potentially be majoring in environmental science and sociology. She hopes to be involved in writing environmental policies in the future that will help to reduce the effects of climate change and to address issues related to environmental justice. Grace will be interning with the Water and Natural Resources Protection Action Team focusing mainly on projects promoting habitat for pollinators and providing related information for our new website, as well as helping with restoration work in the prairies that we manage.
Alex Wojnicki
Alex (above photo, right) joins us this summer after advocating for an internship with us that is focused on environmental justice. With recent legislation at the state level concerning environmental justice issues and concerns of inclusiveness with our own organization and beyond, we were very excited about this prospect and accepted! Alex, a 2021 graduate of Woodstock H.S. began his college career at Appalachian State University and is transferring to St. Norberts College in WI where he’ll be a sophomore in the fall with a political science and international studies double major.
Meghan McCann
Meghan (above photo, left), a graduate of Woodstock North H.S. and past recipient of the Defenders’ college scholarship, is studying at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and spent her first year residing in the school’s Sustainability Living-Learning Community. Meghan is working alongside the Defenders’ Waste Reduction Action Team and has been connected to our organization in the past as a member with a specific interest in food waste reduction and composting. Meghan is considering a major in biochemistry or plant sciences with a minor in ecology and conservation biology.
Kaina Gonzalez
We are so excited to also welcome Kaina Gonzalez (below photo) , a recent graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Woodstock resident, to our team as a contractor working on Latino Outreach. Kaina will be helping to promote programs organized by The Defenders as well as our conservation coalition of organizations, Conversación de Conservación . A generous grant through the Cowlin Foundation makes this work possible and we’re pleased to welcome Kaina to The Defenders, hopefully for many months to come.
Correction Note: previously published versions of this story incorrectly stated Kaina graduated from the University of Chicago.
Where are they now?
Haley Wegener
Haley will be going into her junior year at Iowa State this Fall. She is majoring in political science and environmental studies. She has an internship for this upcoming school year through an organization called Live Green! Iowa State, where she will be planning and implementing three campus-wide sustainability events during the 2022-2023 academic year. She says she is excited to continue to be involved with the Environmental Defenders for the time that she is home this summer!
Ian Shuman
Ian has been quite busy since interning with the Defenders last summer! In the fall he studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he focused on polar and marine biology. The program included a trip to Tromsø, Norway, where they got to learn about polar adaptations in plants and animals firsthand, both while hiking and onboard a cod fishing boat! In Denmark, they worked with harbor porpoises in the Øresund Strait and even dissected a Gray Seal! In the spring semester, he started work on his senior thesis, which aims to model distributions of oak savannas and beech-maple forests across Illinois and Indiana, so this summer, he’ll be back at Notre Dame working on his thesis.
Isabel Bernardi
During the Summer of 2021, Isabel interned for the City of St. Charles Public Works Department. She helped with research regarding their water distribution as well as their wastewater treatment plant. She is currently taking a break from college to focus on herself. She plans to resume classes at Iowa State University in the spring or fall of 2023 where she will continue to pursue her degree in civil engineering.
Katie Evans
Katie was the Defenders’ first ever communication intern. She graduated from Augustana College in May 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Geography and a minor in public health. An animal lover, her first job out of college was Health Educator/Volunteer Coordinator at McHenry County Animal Control and she is now Development Coordinator at Morris Animal Foundation in Denver, CO.
Jacob Karkowski
Jacob graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point last Spring. He worked as a seasonal employee with Baxter and Woodman doing prairie restoration work last summer and fall. During that time, and through the winter, he also volunteered as the steward of our Dean Street property. This spring he was hired as a botany technician with the Great Basin Institute and the BLM in northern California. They help to advance environmental research, education and service by promoting applied research and ecological literacy to support national parks, forests, open spaces and public lands. Jacob was an intern with us in 2019 and 2020.
Isabel Dunn
Isabel recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point with a B.S. in Fisheries and Water Resources, where she was honored to receive the Albertson Award, the highest recognition of student achievement at the university. She is currently participating in a research training program sponsored by the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office in Chicago. It’s been an amazing opportunity for her thus far, and she says she is so thankful for her time spent with the Defenders for strengthening her resolve to study our water resources!
Krista Park
Krista worked on waste reduction and recycling during her summer with us and focused a lot of energy on introducing successful recycling at the County Fair. Krista attended Eckerd College and graduated in May with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Environmental Studies and a minor in applied mathematics. Krista will be relocating from her Illinois home base to Florida to start her new job as a Supervisor of Maintenance and Operations on the Eckerd College Search and Rescue Team. EC-SAR is a non-profit collegiate maritime rescue program helping people with jump starts and tows all the way to assisting county assets on 911 medical cases! The long-term goal though is to end up in conservation work and maybe even start her own company!
