I learned about the executive state government and listened to professionals in different North Carolina departments speak. I also was able to tour different government buildings and learn about the history of North Carolina. I gained experience in public speaking and planned my own service project to give back to my community.

Many kids do not know about the threats wildlife faces or how they can help. My service project will be an educational and interactive “class” with kids from the lower school of pine lake prep. I will partner with local groups, like the Carolina raptor center.

My high school has an annual “winter block party” for the lower school students and families. I used this as an opportunity to support the Carolina Raptor Center and inspire the students to care about wildlife. I planned several meetings with my wildlife conservation club and created a free owl-themed craft for the kids to do at the event. I communicated over several weeks with my school administration and the Raptor center about the organization attending the event. With a lot of planning, I partnered with CRC to do a combined “booth” at the event, holding a free craft, educational items / games (bird skulls, bird identification game, etc), and some CRC merchandise. Overall, I used this event to inspire lower school students to care about raptors through interactive activities and education. 4 members of my club attended to help run the booth.

Overall, I absolutely met my project goal. I was not sure if CRC was going to be able to attend the event, and it required a lot of planning on my part to make sure I had club members and staff from CRC able to attend the event. Over 50 lower school students completed the craft and learned about raptors directly from CRC staff members. CRC was also able to promote their mission and organization to the parents who attended the event.