AmeriCorps Spotlight - Juliana
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My name is Juliana, and I am one of four AmeriCorps Water Educators in Tucson working with Arizona Project WET. We have had so much happen in our first few weeks on the job and we all jumped right into the action. As water educators, we are tasked with teaching students from 4th grade all the way through high school about different programs APW offers. During the first month, we not only learned about water and how to lead the lessons through training and seminars, but also have had firsthand teaching experience.
As I have recently learned, it is required in the state of Arizona that 4th graders learn about groundwater, the water cycle, water conservation, and watersheds. What’s cool about our curriculum is that the setting and lesson can vary from class to class. We mostly teach our groundwater lesson by visiting the students in classrooms, class by class. All other lessons are usually done in a field trip to the Sweetwater Wetlands, where we rotate through each of the remaining lessons—watershed, water cycle, and water conservation.
Something really neat that we were able to accomplish and take part in recently was the Marana Water Festival. We did the same 4 lessons in a group-by-group rotation, but on a much larger scale. The festival took place in a park in Marana where we had over 40 volunteers come and help. With this big of a space and so many volunteers, we were able to work with around 40 classes all in one day. This festival was truly very fun and an amazing experience to be a part of. I look forward to all the water festivals, class visits, and other events to come.
We still have AmeriCorps positions available in all 4 of our counties—Maricopa, Pinal, Coconino, and Pima. If you or someone you know is interested in serving as a Water Educator in Arizona, visit linktr.ee/azprojectwet to learn more and apply!