DSISD Internship winds down

Lily & Rosie, our DSISD interns

Over this past semester, The Greenway Foundation piloted an internship with Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design (DSISD). Over the course of the semester, our two interns learned about the principles of environmental education, shadowed and team-taught on our first grade excursions, completed stewardship projects, participated in the Greenway Leadership Corps, worked with a variety of local government and nonprofit organizations, and so much more! The internship is now coming to a close as the school year wraps up, so we wanted to know what Lily and Rosie thought of their time as TGF interns. Below, we hear directly from these two high school juniors about their favorite experiences over the semester, how they have changed, and what surprised them!

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Casting fly rods with DTU

Now that it’s done, how would you describe the internship?
Lily: I would describe the internship as a fun learning experience that was very educational in the environment that we live in and what we can do to change our environment for the better. I learned a lot of new things about the world around me, and due to that I feel more aware of what’s going in the world.
Rosie: Now that this internship is over here are some things that I learned, the experiences I had and how this internship has helped me develop some good skills. This internship is educational and interactive. It’s a good learning experience


What’s one of your main takeaways from the experience? / What did you learn from your experience?
L: I learned important skills in environmental education that I can pass on to the people around me. I feel like now I have the ability to make a change in my environment.
R: I learned a lot about the environment and about the river and the effects of it and the things around it.

What skills did you gain/strengthen over the semester?
L: I strengthened my communication skills and I am now more comfortable in speaking up about things I care about.  
R: I gained more knowledge and I am more comfortable teaching people about it.

What were your top 3 days of the internship?

L:

• Making the snowboarding video, because I learned a new skill and it was very fun to collaborate with people I work with and in the end the video came out to be great.
• Fly fishing, because I learned a new, challenging skill. With that, I have a new hobby I could adopt that can get me outside more.
• I enjoyed trash pick-ups because I felt like I was making an impact and helping my environment.

R: My favorite days were (1) the second field trip, (2) getting in the river with Denver Trout Unlimited (DTU) to learn about macro invertebrates in the water, and (3) fly fishing with DTU.

What was your favorite part of the internship?
L: I really enjoyed learning new things throughout my internship experience.
R: My favorite part was working with Lily to make the video about the GLC Snowboarding day at Ruby Hill.

What’s something you weren’t expecting?
L: I was not expecting how much trash there was while picking it up on trash pick ups. Once you picked up a bunch of trash, there was still so much more.
R: To have fun

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