‘Ding’ STAR teacher helps with environmental education
For the third consecutive year, J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge has hired a Summer Teachers Assisting Refuges (STAR) teacher for two months to help with summer family programs and other environmental education activities.
This year’s STAR, Kinti Snider, will be a junior at Florida Gulf Coast University this fall majoring in psychology with a minor in education. For the past two years, she has worked as a tutor and teacher’s aide at Three Oaks Elementary School as part of FGCU’s Circle of Friends tutoring and mentoring program.
Besides the refuge’s summer family programs, Snider will assist with public library partnerships, developing a Climate Change curriculum, and assisting the refuge’s education specialist, Ranger Becky Wolff.
“I really enjoy being part of the programs and events that ‘Ding’ Darling puts
together,” said Snider. “The STAR teacher position gives me room to put my creativity and knowledge to good use. I absolutely love learning, and here at ‘Ding’ Darling I learn new things about the environment around me every day.”
The STAR position at “Ding” Darling is made possible by a grant from the LAT Foundation to “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society-Friends of the Refuge (DDWS).