A Summer at GRLT: Interns from Colby College Reflect on their Time at the Land Trust

This summer, for the second year, Colby College's Buck Lab sponsored internships at Georges River Land Trust. We hired two interns from Colby: one to support Community Engagement and Outreach, and one to work specifically on projects at the Langlais Art Preserve. These interns, Anna Weber and Lucy Baker, provided invaluable assistance and demonstrated leadership while running our Wonder Walks, leading art activities for children at Lihua Lei Farley's SEED events, representing GRLT in the Langlais Art Preserve's visitor barn, tabling on behalf of the organization, creating outreach materials, and so much more.

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Left: Anna Weber recording geocache locations on GRLT preserves. Right: Lucy Baker tabling for GRLT and the Langlais Art Preserve at Colby College's Museum Day event.

We are so grateful to the Buck Lab and Colby College for bringing these two talented students to the land trust. Their work was crucial in furthering our mission to foster kinship between our community members and the natural world.

In her own words, Anna Weber describes her second summer at GRLT:

Anna leading a Wonder Walk, our free, weekly, arts-integrated nature program for children ages 0-6.

Hi! My name is Anna Weber, I’m from Union, Maine, and I am a rising junior at Colby College. I’m double-majoring in Environmental Policy and Science, Technology, & Society (with a minor in Italian just for funsies), and it is through the Environmental Studies department at Colby that I learned about this internship opportunity! This is my second summer with the Georges River Land Trust, and I am incredibly happy and grateful to be back. Last summer, I spent the majority of my time at the Langlais Art Preserve, including assisting with a contemporary art installation, trail work, children’s programming, and community engagement. In the fall I continued working for GRLT virtually from school, mostly doing historical and archival research on the history of the lands we maintain. This summer, I have been engaging with GRLT from many different angles. I assist with community engagement (events & programming, advertising, etc.), and have taken on several independent projects, including connecting the land trust with scouting troops in the area and delving into archaeological surveys conducted at our preserves. I am also still at Langlais some of the time and am out on the trails for various monitoring and stewardship tasks. I have so loved being in such a community-oriented, mission-driven space, and hope that this is far from my last hurrah with GRLT. One of the most rewarding elements of this experience has been connecting with and learning from the wonderful humans who engage with Georges River Lanf Trust.