ANJEE Announces Environmental Education Awards
The Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE) has announced the winners of the organization’s 2010 Environmental Education awards. The awardees will be honored on Friday evening, January 28 during ANJEE’s annual Awards Dinner. The dinner is a major highlight of the group’s 26th annual conference, which takes place January 27-29 at the Wyndham Princeton Forrestal Hotel and Conference Center in Plainsboro, NJ.
“As always we received a number of outstanding nominations; so much so that choosing the winners was a very difficult undertaking,” said Karen Leskie, ANJEE Awards Program Coordinator. “However, it’s a challenge the Awards Committee welcomes.”
This year’s winners are:
Jerry Schierloh, Patricia F. Kane Lifetime Achievement Award – Jerry Schierloh is known far and wide throughout New Jersey’s environmental education community. His career at the NJ School of Conservation gave Schierloh the opportunity to inspire and influence thousands of people: teachers, non-formal educators and students. His professionalism, warmth, dedication and humor left a lasting impact – and continue to inspire hundreds of educators today. Jerry’s passion for environmental education led him to help found ANJEE. His commitment to the Alliance over the years has helped it grow and his impact on environmental education in New Jersey will be felt for generations to come.
Travis Davis, 2010 Outstanding Environmental Educator / Nonformal Sector; works with schools – Travis Davis is an educator at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ, where he leads school programs and takes the Wetlands Institute to schools throughout New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. His love of the ocean is infused into each program he does, from “Saltwater Gene Pool” to “Cool Creatures with Amazing Features.” Davis is also very active with the NJ Marine Education Association. As a MEA leader, Travis inspires teachers to give their students greater passion for the natural world.
McDuffy Barrow, 2010 Outstanding Environmental Educator / Nonformal Sector; works with the public at large – Retired teacher McDuffy Barrow works as a seasonal naturalist at the Forest Resource Education Center (FREC) in Jackson, NJ conducting workshops, programs and classes for a diverse audience. When not leading groups at the FREC, Barrow volunteers at the Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education in Waretown, NJ. “His passion for the natural world comes through with each program he leads,” wrote a colleague. “A successful day for him is when he has left each person with a new bit of knowledge and inspiration to research topics further.
Maureen Barrett, 2010 Outstanding Environmental Educator / Formal Sector – Maureen Barrett teaches eighth grade at Harrington Middle School in Mount Laurel, NJ. Throughout her career she has made it her mission to introduce young minds around the world to the wonders of science. Her classroom is a sanctuary of learning in which she illustrates the concepts of migration, habitats, and how human impacts affect the natural world. Each year she and her students conduct a Delaware River cleanup, not just to pick up trash, but to inspire her students to care about their world.
“Each of our awardees has proven time and time again that there is a real need – indeed a hunger – for environmental literacy among children and people of all ages,” said ANJEE President Elizabeth Johnson. “It will be my singular honor next week to recognize not only their work, but their vocations as well.”