Recently, we welcomed Amelia Jenkins and Lekshmi Vijay as NHSN’s new Student Naturalists. Find out more in their own words below.
Amelia
Amelia is currently on a placement year volunteering for NHSN as a Student Naturalist. She studies Zoology at the University of Leeds. Her aim for this placement is to understand the inner workings of a non-profit organisation, particularly the responsibilities of each person and the administrative aspects such as social media and communication.
Amelia’s favourite topics within nature are invertebrates (specifically spiders), sexual selection, and most recently, she has enjoyed learning about fungi. So far on this placement, she has liked going out with the Gosforth Wild Web team to locations such as Exhibition Park, interacting with the public, the fungi nature walk with Sally Pattinson, and working on her nature journal. Spending time at the Gosforth Nature Reserve has been so peaceful, and she has enjoyed seeing new birds.
In the future, she would like to work in wildlife conservation abroad. One of her goals is to work on her identification skills such as birds, trees, and fungi. She is grateful for this opportunity and is hoping to leave her mark on the NHSN legacy.
Lekshmi
Lekshmi is a student at Northumbria University studying Environmental Science with a passion for sustainable development, nature-based solutions, entomology and everything falling under nature. Here as a student naturalist for a work placement year, Lekshmi looks forward to gaining professional experience in working as part of a team, leading projects/events, field identification, and marketing of the organisation’s events.
As a person who enjoys the outdoors, Lekshmi visited the Gosforth Nature Reserve only to run into the most extraordinary mushrooms, soaring Buzzards, galloping Roe Deer and many other species in the nature reserve’s habitats. Besides spotting wildlife in sites like Gosforth Nature Reserve and Jesmond Cemetery, Lekshmi had opportunities to spend time pond dipping and bird watching within her first couple of weeks with NHSN. It has been a great networking opportunity, to get to know the team and learn about the history of the NHSN and the Great North Museum: Hancock.
Lekshmi aspires to be a sustainability leader who encourages innovation. Mainly, she loves to learn about everything and is grateful to be a part of NHSN where she gets to expand her knowledge by learning from our big family of volunteers.
