The girl who at age 3 declared herself “queen of all snakes” is filling an even bigger role these days.
Gabby Popovski is a conservation ambassador.
It’s a task she took on after passing through – maybe surviving is the better word — what she described as an experience unlike any other.
Gabby Popovski
Earlier this summer, the Canon-McMillan sophomore attended Bucktails, one of five camps run by the Wildlife Leadership Academy. It focused on white-tailed deer.
Oh, and insane amounts of work, too.
“It’s not for the faint of heart,” said Popovski, who’s tackled plenty on the way to ranking in the top 2 percent of her class. “I’ve told friends that if they ever go it’s going to be the hardest thing they’ve done in their life.”
Camp lasts just four days. But Popovski said students were up as early as 5:30 a.m. and worked until 11 each night.
They did everything from necropsies – think autopsies – on deer to learning about habitat and why hunting is important to wildlife management to nature journaling and team-building exercises.
“I loved going out with the different equipment the professionals use and learning how it works and what it was for,” Popovski said. “It made me feel like a real ecologist.”
There was time for fun, too. Students shot bows and rifles and shotguns, for example.
The camps – the others focused on bass, brook trout, turkeys and ruffed grouse — introduce a lot of teens to such things, said Michelle Kittell, executive director of the Academy.
Over the last 10 years they’ve attracted students from 62 Pennsylvania counties and six other states. Some come from hunting and fishing backgrounds. Others do not.
All are challenged.
Twenty students attend each camp. They learn about biology, ecology, fish and wildlife management, natural history and more from working fish and wildlife professionals, Kittell said.
But they also learn to give speeches, do presentations and otherwise practice taking what they’ve learned to larger audiences.
“The mission of the Wildlife Leadership Academy is to engage and empower high school-age youth to become conservation ambassadors to ensure a sustained wildlife, fisheries and natural resource legacy for future generations,” Kittell said.
Students are encouraged do outreach in their communities, in areas ranging from education and public service to creative arts and outdoor mentorship.
It’s a lofty goal, for sure. But students are hitting the mark.
Since 2007, 469 academy graduates have done almost 3,100 conservation education projects and reached more than 45,000 people, Kittell said.
Rose Wetzel leads a group in identifying plants of value to ruffed Grouse.
Stepping out like that isn’t always easy, said Rose Wetzel.
A 2017 graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School, she’s been to four Academy camps in the last three years, two as a student, one as a mentor and one as an apprentice. Before her first, she was shy.
That changed, though, at a session conducted at each camp called “words of wisdom.” There, students explore famous sayings.
One quote that touched her came from John James Audubon. It says, “The woods would be silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”
“That really reinforced for me how every voice is important. Every voice makes a difference,” Wetzel said.
The camps prepared her to use hers, she added.
“Even though the name says Wildlife Leadership Academy, people get stuck on the wildlife aspect and forget about everything else,” Wetzel said. “And that’s understandable. It is really exciting to do something like touch a bear.
“But it doesn’t matter how much you know about wildlife if you don’t feel equipped to talk about it. You’re not going to go out in the world and share what you know. That’s why I think the leadership component of the camps is so big.”
Kittell hopes all students take that to heart. The Academy succeeds, she said, when graduates are “committed to serving as spokespersons for conservation in Pennsylvania.”
There are rewards for doing such work.
The top-scoring team at each camp won a field trip to the Poconos that will include visiting a bear den, hunting pheasants and more.
Individual students, meanwhile, earn points for doing outreach. Accumulate enough and they can attend future camps as an assistant team leader and even compete for scholarships.
Popovski’s been busy, leading hikes and more.
“Some people are intimidated by the thought of doing outreach projects after camp, but they shouldn’t be,” Popovski said. “There’s lot of stuff you can do. And it’s fun.”
Her mother, Laura, has seen her change along the way.
Gabby was her outgoing “country mouse” anyway, she said. But she’s grown noticeably since Bucktails.
“She’s always been adventurous, but this was a chance for her to be independent,” Laura Popovski said. “It’s been a great experience for her.”
It’s one Wetzel encourages others to pursue.
The camps exposed her to things she would never have seen or done in the city, she said. They helped shape her future, too.
She’s starting in the environmental studies program at Susquehanna University this fall. She might have wound up there anyway, she said. But her time at Academy camps confirmed her path.
“When I first applied, I was kind of thinking I wouldn’t even get in. But I did and my life changed,” Wetzel said.
“It’s worth it,” Popovski agreed. “It’s so worth it.”
Gabby Popovski and others at the 2017 Bucktails camp engage in a game called “food, water, shelter” that teaches students about the needs of wildlife.
To get involved
Want to attend a Wildlife Leadership Academy camp? There are opportunities for students and adults.
Plans are to offer camps centering around deer, bears, grouse, turkeys, trout and bass in 2018.
Students should be between the ages of 14 and 17, be highly motivated and “have a demonstrated interest in the outdoors and in wildlife and/or fisheries conservation.”
They have to be nominated – by a teacher, mentor or other — to attend. Nominations can be made at http://wildlifeleadershipacademy.org/nominate/.
Once nominated, students will get an invitation to apply.
Upon completing a camp, students receive letters of recommendation for college and are eligible to receive three college credits from Cedar Crest College. They can also become a youth mentor and return to the program tuition-free the following year, compete for college scholarships and attend official visits at colleges and universities with wildlife and conservation programs.
As for adults?
Applications to become a volunteer mentor are at http://wildlifeleadershipacademy.org/adult-mentor-application/.
Adults can earn three college credits, too, along with 40 ACT 48 credits.
In the meantime, if you want to hear from students about camp in their own words, check out the NextGen blog at www.wildlifeleadershipacademy.org/category/youth-blog.
