The Audubon Center at Debs Park is proud to have worked with 3 incredible interns this summer.  These Audubon WINGS Conservation Education Interns help us develop and deliver our summer camp program to the community.   Over the course of the summer these interns work with nearly 200 kids, helping them see the natural world in Debs Park and teaching them about how they can make a difference for the environment.  All of us at the Audubon Center at Debs Park are honored to have worked with these talented people.

Jessica Loya, "LOYA", grew-up the northeast LA community of Cypress Park.  At Eagle Rock High School, Jessica took an interest in environmental studies. Currently she is a University of California-Santa Cruz student, majoring in Environmental Studies.  Here are some of her reflections about working  with Audubon:

Nature here and now, the sound of wind through the pepper trees, the roar of the 110, the silent cry of the arroyo as it trickles along. Interning at the Audubon Center at Debs Park has been by far the most intriguing experience of my academic and professional careers.  There is something unique and keen about the place, people, and community that has been created here something that can only be explained in the words of our future generation as PURO Audubon. Reflecting upon the summer, the people that I've met, the teaching of environmental education to our urban youth, the smiles laughs and memories that were made alongside Mother Nature is more than I could have yearned to have gotten from my wings internship. PURO Audubon cannot be simply defined from the rhetoric of google translate, it is so much more, it is simply ineffable.

Months prior to the internship, it seemed to me that my curiosity in nature was slipping away. Simultaneously, my peace of mind and clarity also began to slip away and my stress and anxiety began to cloud my sense of being. In my time at the Audubon center, I came to realize that being surrounded by nature in every form, whether being talking or teaching or hiking along the trails, a sense of calmness and tranquility came to me. One of my many goals for the summer was to find my place in nature and I believe that in my times as a wings intern I understand a bit more where that place is and what nature has to offer me in my life. Nature is a very precious and unique part of this world its ability to provide life for all organisms all across the world in different ecosystem is incredible. Its power to heal and rejuvenate itself and others about it is one of the world’s greatest wonders.

In my time as a wings intern my knowledge of nature and its being has grown to tremendous heights. I have a greater understanding and connection to the efforts for conservation and preservation of natural areas and the importance to teach our future generations about the greatness that nature has to offer. The staff at Audubon Center Debs Park make it their lives to teach this importance to individuals that some would consider to not normally care for such efforts, and have proven that through connection with the needs of the community and true passion it is possible and rewarding to work with such individuals.

(Above, Loya working with summer day campers in Sycamore Grove Park.)