March 24, 2004     Get WPC Daily Every Morning! WPC's Community Gardens Peregrine Falcon News Fallingwater WPC's Conservation Programs Sustainable Farmland    

National Volunteer Week - Meet Ben Fricke

Our final featured volunteer this week is Watershed Asistance Center intern Ben Fricke. Ben writes:

I am currently attending the Indiana University of Pennsylvania majoring in geography. In the Geography and Regional Planning Department, I have taken different courses dealing with geographical theory, history, environmental planning, water resources, mapping and especially Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Before this internship with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy's Watershed Assistance Center, I completed an internship with the Indiana County Planning and Development Offices. Working with the county GIS staff and staff from private consulting agencies opened my eyes to how GIS is being used in real world settings. While that internship taught me much about planning and how GIS is used in that field, this current internship with WPC has given me more experience in the use of GIS and the components involved. Working for an organization like WPC has given me a great insight into the kind of work that conservation organizations do. The work is interesting and working with many different projects keeps the part that I do from getting too mundane. I also felt that helping with GIS work for a group like this would really be something that I could do and enjoy in the future. I like the type of people that I have met and get the feeling that we have some similar interests. I enjoy being outdoors and activities like camping, fishing, hiking, traveling etc. The work that WPC does seems to really complement my interests. I have definitely learned much while working here so far, and know that it will help me down the road when applying for a full time job in this field as a GIS specialist.

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy would like to thank all the many volunteers that help Western Pennsylvania Conservancy save the places we care about.

Volunteer at one of the 170 Community Gardens in 20 western Pa. counties
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