Applications Are Now Open for a Full Scholarship to Educator’s Week at National Audubon’s Hog Island Camp

Photo: 2022 ASNV Hog Island Scholarship Winners Chrissy Brownson and Candice Centinkaya

Each summer, ASNV offers a full scholarship and transportation to “Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week” at the National Audubon Society’s 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. From the Hog Island Audubon Camp website: “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.” 

The applicant must be a public classroom teacher, specialist or school administrator 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.)  Dates for the coming year are July 16-21, 2023. To apply, please complete the online application  and submit two letters of recommendation no later than February 28, 2023. One of these must be from your principal. Please see the application for additional details, including post-camp requirements.

2022 Hog Island Scholarship Winners

Would you like to learn more about what a week at the camp is like? You can read the reports of the two scholarship winners to last summer’s camp here. 

Youth Education Mini-grants - Last Chance to Apply is April 1!

Photo: Huntley Meadows youth nature drawing class, Margaret Wohler

Are you an educator with a great idea for a bird-related conservation project with your students?  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 pleased to offer three mini-grants of up to $500 each for 2022. 

Funding may be used to support Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs), professional development, field trips, speakers and admission fees, equipment, transportation, trees, plants, etc. All projects must include an educational component and be completed by December 31, 2022 by submitting a one-paragraph summary and photos of the finished project to youtheducation@audubonva.org.

The application form for the mini-grants can be found here. Deadline for applications is April 1. Please contact Youth Education with questions about the Youth Education Mini-Grant program.

My Educator’s Week at Hog Island Audubon Camp

Photo: Phoebe Riegle

Phoebe Riegle
ASNV 2020 Hog Island Scholarship Winner  

My whole life I have been hearing about this camp in Maine where the showers are always cold, the mornings are always early, and the birds are always calling. My mother attended Hog Island’s Educator’s week in the 80’s as a young educator, extremely invested in ways to share the natural world with children from various backgrounds. As her child, I was also one of her students so, I got to experience the incredible camps and lessons that she learned from Hog Island. Little did I know that one day I would get to learn from the same man on the same island that taught her “almost” everything she knows, as well as from a few other incredible educators.

Phoebe Riegle

Phoebe Riegle

The year-postponement due to COVID was unfortunate but I was still thrilled to have the opportunity to attend in 2021. Walking up onto the island I was overwhelmed with excitement and comfort in knowing that the showers were now heated because of new solar panels and, more importantly, I was going to be spending a week with like-minded educators all looking to explore nature like we were kids again.

Adorned with my new “fancy” pair of binoculars, I awoke early the first morning to join the legend himself, Ted Gillman, and fellow bird-nerds for a birding session. I learned the flight pattern and calls for birds like woodpeckers and goldfinches as well as how to “point” out birds. The biggest take-away from each of Ted’s lessons was to find ways to build-in success for every student. Celebrate every observation and inference that students make when exploring nature even if it has nothing to do with your question or lesson. Also, remember that you don’t need fancy equipment to get kids into nature- paper towel rolls can be binoculars, an old white shower curtain can be an observation station under a tree, and old cottage cheese tubs can be miniature ponds.

Throughout the rest of the week, I learned from inspiring naturalists about pollinators, insects, birds, marine ecosystems, and citizen science all with a tone of remembrance for the Native Americans who once inhabited the area. James, Kaylani, Margaret, Ted, Colleen, Khav, and Ms. Evonne taught me more than I could’ve imagined. By the end of the week one fellow camper said it best – the thing that made this camp amazing was the fact that it was a group of nature-loving educators who all bought into the magical energy of the island each and every day. With everything happening in the world, it is easy to get bogged down by negativity. Nature is one thing that has stayed consistently and relatively safe throughout these past few years. Take every opportunity you can to feel like a kid again and explore, ask questions, draw conclusions, and research – because you still can.

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