This webinar is part of the Virginia Master Naturalist program Continuing Education webinar series for volunteers.  

Description: How do guests interact with nature spaces? Park Rangers and environmental educators across the country are constantly asking this question in order to serve and provide meaningful educational programs. But what happens when the majority of your guest demographic speaks another language? Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research methods, a case study was conducted at Lake Anna and Leesylvania State Parks in Summer 2019 as a way to begin understanding the needs and expectations English Language Learning (ELL) families in nature spaces. This webinar will provide an overview of the methodology, summary of data collected, and interpretations from the researcher. Case studies may not reflect the specific situation in your local, state, or national parks, but they can offer a different viewpoint to begin working on understanding your own diverse audience.  This is a follow-up to our November 2018 webinar.

Presenter: Mariya Hudick is the Education Coordinator with Tri-County/City Soil & Water Conservation District. Her primary focus is to educate the local community on soil and water conservation efforts. From 2015-2018, Mariya worked for the Department of Conservation & Recreation as a Park Ranger where she provided meaningful environmental education opportunities for the general public. Mariya is originally from Russia and immigrated with her family in the early 2000s. As a former ELL student, Mariya has used her experiences to better connect with other non-native English speakers in the hopes of inspiring future stewards. She has been conducting research on the multicultural student in environmental education and has partnered with various Master Naturalists to collect and interpret data on the subject for the last two years.