Apply Now for the 2025 Educator Scholarship

Photo: Atlantic Puffins, Walker Golder/Audubon Photography Awards

Bill Burton

Each year NVBA offers a full scholarship and transportation to “Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week” at National Audubon Society's Hog Island Camp in Maine. Hog Island Audubon Camp has offered environmental education programs for adults, teens, families and conservation leaders since 1936. While there, educators learn interdisciplinary hands-on methods and approaches to environmental education while immersed in the natural world. Of its program, National Audubon writes,

Learn practical approaches and add inspiration to your environmental education curriculum during this action-packed program. Our experienced and enthusiastic instructors share their favorite approaches, methods, and activities for engaging both children and adults with nature.

You can read about the experience of the 2024 recipient here.

The applicant must be a public classroom teacher, specialist or school administrator in the NVBA chapter territory, which encompasses all of Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William and Stafford Counties, and portions of Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, Rappahannock and Spotsylvania Counties. Independent cities in that area include Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Leesburg, Manassas and Manassas Park. The maps on our website provide additional detail.

Educator’s Week in the coming year is August 10-15. To apply, please complete the online application and submit two letters of recommendation no later than February 21, 2025. Please see the application for additional details, including post-camp requirements.

2024 Educator Scholarship Application Now Open

Photo: Atlantic Puffins, Walker Golder

Bill Burton

Each year ASNV offers a full scholarship to Sharing Nature: An Educator's Week at Hog Island Audubon Camp in coastal Maine. Hog Island Audubon Camp has offered environmental education programs for adults, teens, families and conservation leaders since 1936. While there, educators learn interdisciplinary hands-on methods and approaches to environmental education while immersed in the natural world--read about the 2022 recipients' experience here.

The applicant must be a public classroom teacher, specialist or school administrator in the ASNV chapter territory, which encompasses all of Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William and Stafford Counties (excluding Dulles Airport in Fairfax County), and portions of Fauquier, Loudoun, Rappahannock and Spotsylvania Counties. Independent cities in that area include Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Leesburg, Manassas and Manassas Park. The maps on our website provide additional detail.

Educator’s Week in the coming year is July 14-19, 2024. To apply, please complete the online application and submit two letters of recommendation no later than February 28, 2024. Please see the application for additional details, including post-camp requirements.

Reports from Hog Island Educator’s Week

Photo: Candice Cetinkaya and Chrissy Brownson arriving at Hog Island for Educators’ Week

ASNV issued grants to send two teachers to Educator’s Week at Hog Island, Audubon’s Camp in Bremen, Maine. Here is what they had to say about their visit, the week of July 17.

Candice Cetinkaya and Chrissy Brownson arriving at Hog Island for Educators’ Week

Chrissy Brownson, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) and Science Resource Teacher, Providence Elementary, Fairfax County Public Schools 

When we learned that some of the paragons of environmental science had spent time researching on Hog Island, it was no surprise that the week was packed with learning. To think that we were walking in the footsteps of Rachel Carson and Roger Tory Peterson enriched our learning and lent to the magic that Hog Island exudes. From examining a preserved passenger pigeon to seeing the thriving renewed puffin colony, the opportunities for learning and wonder were numerous. 

Each day we spent time on the island or in the water deepening our science knowledge and learning how we could bring these lessons back to our schools. Teaching is a craft, and we had the opportunity to learn from several gifted educators and environmental scientists. I have done pond studies before, both as the teacher and as an adult learner, but doing it with the instructors from the Audubon camp was like taking a master class. I found myself jotting take-aways in between identifying macroinvertebrates and planning for how I could bring this same level of enabling discovery back to my students. 

I am so appreciative of this opportunity, both to learn from the amazing team at the camp and to collaborate with passionate educators from across the country. I can’t wait to share this with our school and ignite a passion for the world around them. 

Candice Cetinkaya, Science Resource Teacher for Region 5 Elementary Schools and Three Middle Schools in Alexandria

A big thank you from the bottom of my heart for enabling me to experience the Educator’s Week at Hog Island. The highlights of the week were countless, but some of my favorites included: exploring the tide pools; uncovering the geologic history of the islands while scrambling over granite boulders with basalt intrusions; learning about, and then witnessing, the return of puffins to Easter Egg Island; tramping through shoulder-high ferns, only to emerge into a field of milkweed with swarms of monarch butterflies; watching harbor seals, osprey, and (from the deck of the Queen cabin where I slept each night) the departure of the lobster boats.

Beyond the amazing opportunity to immerse myself in nature was the learning that occurred by connecting with naturalists and educators from across the country and from diverse backgrounds. The experiences, conversations with others, and periods of reflection nourished my mind, body, and soul and prepared me to share my love of nature with students. Again, thank you for providing this enriching, motivational, and soul nourishing experience.  I can’t wait to share it with my students.  

2022 Scholarship Application to Hog Island Educator’s Week Now Open

Photo: Hog Island, Phoebe Riegle

Each year Audubon Society of Northern Virginia offers a full scholarship to Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week at Hog Island Audubon Camp in coastal Maine. Hog Island Audubon Camp has offered environmental education programs for adults, teens, families, and conservation leaders since 1936. While there, educators learn interdisciplinary hands-on methods and approaches to environmental education while immersed in the natural world.  

Applicants must be public classroom teachers, specialists, or school administrators in the ASNV chapter territory (Counties: Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Rappahannock and Stafford. Independent cities: Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Leesburg, Manassas and Manassas Park.) 

Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week will be held July 17-22, 2022!

To apply, please complete the online application and submit two letters of recommendation no later than February 28, 2022. Please see the application for additional details, including post-camp requirements.

Youth Education Mini-grant Winners 2020

Photo: Birding, Tom Hissong/Great Backyard Bird Count

Every year, the Youth Education Committee of ASNV sponsors a mini-grant program to support teachers, schools, and non-profit organizations in youth-oriented education about birds and the environment.  The committee is proud to announce three recipients ($500 per grant) in 2020:

Fairview Elementary School in Fairfax Station, VA will use funds to build bluebird houses and purchase binoculars for its K-6 students.  They will couple existing indoor environmental lessons with outdoor activities along their newly built bluebird trail.  Students will engage in seasonal observations and analysis of a wide variety of avian behaviors to complement their science standards of learning.

Cub Run Elementary School in Centreville, VA will purchase wildlife cameras and bird feeding kits so that their K-1 students can track birds in their natural habitat.  They will incorporate the data and observations into curriculum on the basic needs of animals. 

H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program in Arlington, VA will launch a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) around the topic of single-use plastics, from their environmental impacts to their re-use in the school’s makerspace. The mini-grant will help to fund a field trip on 2020 Potomac Watershed Clean-Up Day to trawl for and analyze micro-plastics.

2020 Hog Island Scholarship Winner – Phoebe Riegle

Photo: Examining tide pool organisms, Kirk Treakle

ASNV’s  Youth Education Committee is thrilled to announce Phoebe Riegle as the 2020 recipient of our Hog Island Scholarship.  Each summer, ASNV offers a full scholarship and transportation to “Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week” at National Audubon Society’s Hog Island Camp in Maine.  While there, educators learn interdisciplinary hands-on methods and approaches to environmental education while immersed in the natural world.  

Ms. Riegle is a fifth-grade teacher at William Ramsay Elementary School in Alexandria, VA.  She hopes to use the lessons learned at Hog Island to better integrate conservation and habitat content with English Language Learning (ELL) strategies across grade levels and subjects.  Ms. Riegle will attend the program in July 2020 before returning to her classroom in the fall.    

Hog Island Scholarship Application Deadline Extended!

Photo: Atlantic Puffins, Kevin VandeVusse/Audubon Photography Awards

Each summer Audubon Society of Northern Virginia offers a full scholarship and transportation to “Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week” at National Audubon Society’s Hog Island Camp in Maine. This year’s session is July 12-17, 2020, and will feature workshops on educational techniques, a boat trip to the restored Atlantic Puffin and Tern colony on Eastern Egg Rock, intertidal explorations, and hiking through Hog Island's unspoiled spruce-fir forest. 

Applicants must be a public classroom teacher, specialist or school administrator in the ASNV chapter territory. Counties: Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, and Stafford.  Independent cities: Alexandria, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and Manassas Park.  

We have extended the application deadline to March 1, 2020.   

A link to the scholarship application can be found here. 

If you have any questions please email: youtheducation@audubonva.org

For further information about this session at Hog Island, please visit their website by clicking here or watch this great video.

The scholarship announcement will be on March 16, 2020.  Thanks for spreading the word in your school district, and we look forward to receiving applications from your schools!

Reflections on Hog Island Audubon Camp

Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week

By Kirk Treakle, ASNV 2019 Hog Island Scholarship Winner

Spending six days on Hog Island, Maine was one of the most meaningful, educational experiences I have ever had. From the moment we stepped off the boat from the mainland, we were immersed in a rich environment of natural wonder, forming new relationships, and inspired by the passion and knowledge of the camp staff and our fellow educators who arrived from all over the country.

Hog Island Coastline, Kirk Treakle

The week was full of highlights, big and small. Here are few:

• Being challenged by the hands-on “Mystery of the Day” where we had to figure out something about the natural world by using available resources. It was fascinating to learn that black feathers contained more melanin, causing them to be hardier, and thus found on the outer wings of many sea birds whose feathers can take a beating when they sometimes touch the surface while flying over the water.

• Exploring tide pools and pond life allowing us to live the kinds of experiences we hope to share with our students and along the way, anticipating pitfalls and learning a bagful of simple tricks to involve every child and expose them to the best outdoor nature experiences available to us.

• Getting to witness, first hand, the results of decades of work by Audubon’s Project Puffin, a part of the Seabird Restoration Program, which has successfully re-introduced Atlantic Puffins to Egg Island where they once lived. The island is now thriving with puffins and Common Terns, which are still studied by scientists who live in tents near the birds during breeding season.

• Discovering the geologic history of another island by walking its rocky coast with a geologist. Decades ago, fishermen who stained the island rocks with tar while waterproofing their nets, added a human element to the story told thousands of years ago in boulders deposited by glaciers, and even earlier by the twisted layers of schist and cross-cutting igneous intrusions created millions of years ago.

• Sitting on moss-covered rocks under the shade of tall trees, the sounds of nature flooded our senses as we took a mindfulness break during a day-long hike around Hog Island.

• Being a part of a group in an atmosphere that was purposefully created to be inclusive of all types of people.

• Hearing the repeated message by camp staff that we all can and are making a difference in conserving nature, one student and one action at a time, and gaining so many new tools with which to successfully make those differences.

Educator’s Week on Hog Island was a celebration of the natural world, giving us strategies, tips, and ideas to inspire a sense of wonder with the youth we have the privilege to guide along the path.

I am so grateful to the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia for sponsoring me for this transformative adventure.

Are you an educator who would like to experience Audubon Camp on Hog Island? Information on this year’s scholarship program can be found here.

Puffin Desserts on Hog Island, Kirk Treakle