My time at Douglas Land Conservancy has come to an end, and with it, the summer of 2016.  As I now prepare to return to Valpo for my senior year, I have been thinking a lot about community.  When you are in college, it can at times appear fairly easy to find a community.  After all, you are living with your closest friends, and surrounded by students nearly every day.  You find those with like minded interests, and a community forms.  A consistent cautionary tale that I have heard echoed by nearly every graduate from Valpo over the past few years is that I cannot take for granted that community because when you move on from college, finding a community can be more challenging.  I have taken this advice to heart, and plan on maximizing every opportunity in front of me this upcoming school year.  My time at DLC, […]

As I arrived at Douglas Land Conservancy, I was full of questions about the upcoming summer. There were many unknowns, but perhaps the biggest question on my mind was about the purpose of my summer at DLC.  Ever since I stepped foot on campus at Valpo, I had been acutely aware of the university’s focus on and attention to service.  Service is an integral part of university life.  Soon after I learned of my placement at DLC, I was filled with questions about the conservation field, and its relationship to service.  I spent much of my first week pouring over files, attempting to gain a basic understanding of the conservation field.  For those of you as unfamiliar with the field as I was, I will give you a quick flyover of what I’ve learned so far. The kind of work that DLC does on the land can be broken down […]