For the last year, I have been based in Burlington, VT, working at Champlain Community Services (CCS), a nonprofit that provides developmental services and health care to Vermonters with intellectual disabilities and autism. I joined the CCS team as a Direct Support Professional last January and worked one-on-one with individuals helping to support them in the community, navigate their daily life, and respond to challenges as they arise. In June, I stepped into a new role as a Service Coordinator and I now manage a caseload of 11 clients. My responsibilities include: helping individuals manage their finances; scheduling medical appointments; coordinating supports both in the community and in the workplace; and overseeing the many other details that help enable people to live as independently as possible. I love being a part of this organization, which helps foster a more inclusive and supportive community here in Vermont. I have learned a great deal from the people I work with and can truly say that I have become a better person because of my time with them. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my clients, their families, and my colleagues for challenging me to think more deeply about what it means to live in a community where everyone has the opportunity to feel included, nurtured, and sustained. Thank you to MVYouth for helping me get to where I am today.
Lena Hanschka - Colby College
I began 2022 living and working in the Chamonix Valley in the French Alps. Working as a private chef, I was able to hone my cooking skills, exploring recipes and meals influenced by the French Savoyard style of cooking and practicing my French language skills between the stalls of the farmer’s markets. My free time was spent outside, either backcountry skiing through the magnificent glaciered peaks or trail running through small villages nestled into the mountains. My three months spent in Chamonix taught me a lot and challenged me to push myself out of my comfort zone, whether in the kitchen or in the mountains.
After returning to the U.S., I moved to Nyack, New York, a small town just north of New York City. I spent the summer and fall working first in a restaurant and later getting a job with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) in Harriman State Park. Working with the AMC was a great introductory job into the non-profit conservation field and gave me greater insight into how organizations, like the AMC, are working to make the outdoors more accessible to all kinds of people, regardless of their prior experience in wilderness areas. Because of the park’s proximity to the city, it attracts a lot of people coming up for a day trip. This provided an interesting opportunity for me to adjust my own perspective in order to create a more inclusive and accessible space for all people.
In December, I finished up my position with the AMC, packed up my things, and drove north to Burlington, Vermont. In January, I will be starting a social work position with Champlain Community Services working one-on-one with individuals living with mental disabilities. I am really looking forward to this new position and the challenges and pleasures it will bring.
Lena Hanschka - Colby College
In January of 2021, I returned to campus at Colby College to begin my final semester of my senior year. Thankfully, the majority of my classes were held in-person and I was able to live on campus, participating in my normal extra-curricular activities and taking advantage of my final months of college. I continued my on campus jobs, working as a research assistant in the Colby Lab for Ice and Climate Research as well as assisting a global studies professor whose recent work has focused on homogenizing rhetoric that promotes nationalism in the US. I also worked for Colby’s sustainability department leading student outreach programs and at the school’s rock climbing wall. In May, I graduated, with a major in anthropology and a minor in environmental studies.
I came home to the Vineyard for the summer, returning to my job with the Trustees of Reservations on their Chappaquiddick properties. There, I worked as a member of their shorebird monitoring team, making daily observations of the nesting and breeding statuses of the protected birds that inhabit the Vineyard’s beaches during the summer months. Because these beaches are also greatly utilized by the public during in the summer, this job provided a unique opportunity to examine strategies for managing the relationship between beach goers and the wildlife that depend on these habitats for their survival and reproduction. I found my conversations with members of the public to be the most rewarding aspect of this job, with each encounter providing me insights on how to best explain and educate people about the importance of wildlife management and protection while also taking into account recreational public access to these beautiful properties.
I spent this fall traveling around both the U.S. and overseas to France, taking advantage of the time I had between jobs to think more deeply about what I wish to pursue next. I’m spending this winter in the Chamonix valley in the French alps, working as a private chef and building up my backcountry skiing and wilderness safety skills.
Lena Hanschka - Colby College
I began the year studying land conservation with a program focused in field research in Chilean Patagonia. We would pack up and head out to go backpacking for up to two weeks at a time, living in the backcountry out of tents and tarps. We spent our days transecting through forests and bogs, collecting population and biodiversity data. Each night, we returned back to camp for dinner followed by an evening class. The program took a holistic approach, integrating biology and ecology with natural history and environmental humanities. I learned about the people who had inhabited the land before it was bought and converted to conversation land. We discussed the various perspectives that should be considered and respected when preserving areas of land, thinking about how to effectively implement conservation policies in a sustainable and impactful way. In March, I returned to the Vineyard to quarantine during the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. I finished out my classes online and enjoyed the calm and beauty of the island during the off-season. In early May, I started working for the Trustees of Reservations on their Chappaquiddick properties as a shorebird technician. Each day, I would head out onto the beaches trying to locate pairs of nesting piping plovers and American oystercatchers. The nests were then monitored daily, observing how many eggs were laid and later, how many chicks had hatched. It was incredibly rewarding tracking the progress of the birds, almost all of whom were nesting along beaches with vehicle access. I learned more about land and species management in areas highly trafficked by humans and how to balance the needs of the wildlife with the wants of the community. In the fall, I returned to Colby College for hybrid classes. Luckily, the school was able to finance mass testing and quarantine any students who did test positive for COVID-19, allowing us to stay on campus for the semester. Overall, I was really happy to be able to return to campus and was able to take advantage of being in Maine with access to both the mountains and the coast.
Lena Hanschka - Colby College
In 2019 I had the opportunity to travel to several different countries for specialized study. I spent January in Paris, France, for a small-group language intensive course. During the week, I studied French, and outside of class I was able to explore the city, visiting museums and practicing my French conversational skills. I returned to the Colby College campus in Maine for spring semester, dividing my studies between anthropology and geology. I became more interested in Earth’s climate and how its changes are recorded in geologic history. This led to a summer research position with Dr. Bess Koffman, an assistant professor of geology at Colby College. I spent three weeks in June on the Kahiltna Glacier in Denali National Park, Alaska, doing field research and preparing to collect ice and snow samples from the saddle of Mount Hunter. Then I returned to Colby to work in Dr. Koffman’s geo-chemistry lab. We analyzed the isotopic “fingerprint” of the glacial samples to determine the origins of dust stored within the snow to track how winds have changed over the past several thousand years and how this corresponds to other changes in Earth’s climate. In August I traveled to Dakar, Senegal, for a four-month program focused on language and culture. My host family immersed me in the Senegalese way of life, speaking French and Wolof, with communal meals and family events. I traveled to rural regions of the country and The Gambia, analyzing neocolonialism and processes of development confronting many African countries. I also visited the African Aquatics Conservation Fund, a nonprofit research, conservation and education organization. The semester in general greatly increased my interest in sustainable international development, especially the vulnerability of certain populations in relation to climate change.
Lena Hanschka - Colby College
Freshman year at Colby College was about observing and exploring academic life, new social dynamics, the Maine outdoors, and the incredible range of extra-curricular opportunities. Now in my second year, I’ve become fully engaged. As a leader in the Colby Outdoor Orientation Program this fall, I helped incoming first-years get acquainted with the school before the start of classes. My co-leader and I mentored eight freshmen in three days of wilderness hiking, a great start to the new year. Academically, I’m focusing on anthropology and environmental science. This semester I took two anthropology classes – one on research methods and the other combining economics with anthropology – with two focused independent research projects. Both turned out to relate pretty directly to experiences I’ve witnessed in my own life. In one final research paper, I explored the social and economic dynamics between Martha’s Vineyard tradesmen and their wealthy clients. In the other, I explored how socio-economic disparities can affect a person’s ability to participate in outdoor recreation. These projects gave me a better appreciation for my Vineyard upbringing. Looking ahead, language and foreign study are important components of my specialized anthropology program. In preparation for study abroad next year in Senegal, I’m developing my French language fluency with a fall semester French course taught by a Senegalese professor, followed by a one-month French immersion class in Paris in January. My environmental studies coursework has focused on geology this year, specifically climate change: the first course connected the Earth’s geological history to accelerating changes in the earth’s climate today; and the second will delve more deeply into the specifics of those changes. MVYouth and its generous donors have enabled me to take full advantage of the many academic and extra-curricular opportunities that Colby offers – thank you!
Lena Hanschka - Colby College
This past semester at Colby College has been really amazing. All of my classes were really interesting, especially my Introduction to Anthropology course. We covered a wide array of topics, but it was really fascinating to learn about the small aspects of different cultures. For example, we learned about how the definition of kinship can vary by culture, sometimes not defined by genetics at all, but rather by who you eat your meals with. I have also really enjoyed living in Maine. The Colby campus is surrounded by woods with many trails to walk or run through. It has been really nice to be able to take a break from studying or homework and enjoy nature. I am so excited for the winter weather and all of the winter sports. The Sugarloaf Ski Resort is only about an hour away and with a more relaxed winter schedule, I hope it make it up to the mountain at least once a week.