I spend most of my days working inside the Historic Barker House sitting at my desk with my
computer. When I had originally thought about working at an environmental non-profit I had
imagined myself spending most of my days outside. I never would have thought that I would be
sitting at a desk. However, in order to have the nature that I long to spend my time in, there
needs to be people doing the desk work.

Over the past month I have spent most of my time sifting through member data, making sure
data is transferred over properly, and emailing members to make sure their information is up to
date. This is important work, because in order to help preserve and advocate for the Dunes we
need financial support and these memberships are one of the ways we progress toward that.
There are multiple tiers of membership depending on the monetary donation members choose
to give yearly. Members gain access to certain privileges such as special events, advocacy
updates, and opportunities to interact with the staff that have helped shape the organization and
its mission to protect and advocate for the Indiana Dunes and Lake Michigan.

When I started my time at Valpo I was convinced that I was going to be a Park Ranger. I had my
heart set on this plan at 11 years old and did not see myself having any sort of job that entailed
spending my time at a desk. While at Valpo I fell in love with philanthropy and advocacy, through
the student org I was involved with, SALT. Park Ranger and philanthropy felt like two very
separate paths that I would never be able to mix. After getting placed at Save the Dunes I
quickly realized that my interests and knowledge that I had collected through the past few years
had all merged together into this opportunity. I have found a path that allows me to express my
knowledge and interest in the environment while also feeling fulfilled and helping impact others
through helping to preserve a space for many generations to come.

I, as well as many of my classmates at Valpo, have expressed feelings of anxiety and confusion
about their future in the last year. While this is a common feeling for college students, it has
been amplified among my environmental cohorts with all the changes in priorities with the
changing of government officials. There is, understandably, a common school of thought that all
environmental justice work is done outside, in the fields, forests, and with the flora and fauna,
but in a world and country that is experiencing whiplash the way my peers and coworkers have
felt in the past year in regards to the care of the environment, there is so much that can be done
online as well. As much as I’d like to subscribe to the “all environmental work is done outside”
way of thinking, seeing the way that I can communicate with members of my community who
care about the Earth as much as I do and help preserve the space I’ve especially come to love
here at the Dunes has given me a jolt of energy and rejuvenated my sense of hope for my
community.

Emma Depa, Save the Dunes

It’s been a month since I started at Heartland Alliance, and I’m so thankful for the experiences I’ve had and everything I’ve learned so far! Since completing my training, I have started working with some participants within the Refugee and Immigrant Community Services program. Some of my responsibilities when working with participants include reaching out to each participant and talking to them about their current employment situations, searching for jobs that participants are eligible for/interested in, and helping participants apply for jobs. If a participant gets a call-back for an interview with a job placement, it is also my responsibility to accompany them to the interview, if necessary. Each time that I interact with a participant, whether that’s over the phone or through messaging or in-person, I also have to file case notes. As I’ve started getting to know each situation and learning about how I can best serve the participants that I’ve been assigned, the case notes have been very helpful. I can go back and read case notes from people who have previously interacted with/assisted my participants, which has helped me know how to move forward and continue communicating with the participants in an effective way.

When I had my first phone call talking to one of my participants, I was really nervous! I was worried that I would forget what to ask them, or say the wrong thing. Another challenge that I was nervous about was using an interpreter. Since most of my participants don’t speak fluent English, I have to merge calls with an interpreter every time I speak to my participants over the phone. The first time I did this, I was so worried that I would somehow mess up the call and have to call my participant back – which would not be the best first impression! But once I did it the first time, it was actually a lot easier than I was imagining. It’s been a learning curve trying to communicate with people who speak different languages, but it’s also been really cool!

As I’ve continued to learn more about how Heartland operates, I’ve been thinking about how this type of work relates to the topics of my classes back at school. In many of my Economics classes, we’ve talked a lot about things like efficiency, trade-offs, and the effects of different types of policies. Thinking about these concepts and how they might relate to the situations that refugees and immigrants face has made me consider how things might be improved for refugees and immigrants from an economics standpoint. Many refugees come to the US with some type of work experience in their home country – sometimes even extensive experience in important fields, like nursing. Is there a more efficient or effective way to transfer these skills to jobs in the US that companies could offer to refugees? Could there be some program that would allow refugees to show employers/educators what they already know, to earn credibility with US companies? It’s been interesting thinking about the relationship between economics and refugee and immigrant services, and I’m looking forward to learning more about these things while continuing to work with Heartland Alliance.

Nora Fisher, Heartland Alliance