Luisa Chantler Edmond ’22, Anthropology

Luisa Chantler Edmond ’22

Major

Anthropology

Project Title

Northern Kenya Conservation Clubs

Certificate(s): Environmental Studies

The goal of my internship was to assist the Northern Kenya Conservation Clubs in creating active-learning lesson plans that will teach children in Laikipia County, Kenya, about the value of their local environment and its conservation. The biggest project that my fellow intern, Yun Hallowell, and I undertook was designing lesson plans for World Elephant Day. These lesson plans aimed to teach students not only about the animals and the ecological processes they are focused on, but also about elephants’ inherent value and positive effect on the students’ lives. By needing to work across multiple time zones, I learned how to best communicate with my project leaders and fellow intern about the challenges I was facing. I also relied on and challenged my creativity in writing the lesson plans as we had to think about how best to translate the work from paper to a physical activity the students would enjoy. I found listening to the Mpala researchers talk about their work to be one of the most interesting parts of the internship. Hearing not only about their projects, but their journeys into research was fascinating!