The Georgia Forestry Association (GFA) recently welcomed Chelsea York of Milledgeville and Joseph Vaughn of McDonough as the 2016 summer interns.
A 2015 graduate of Georgia College and State University (GCSU), Chelsea is passionate about the outdoors and environmental education. She plans to seek a position that will allow her to work in an administrative role and also with participants in the field. Over the summer, Chelsea will be working on educational programs through Project Learning Tree and the Georgia Teacher Conservation Workshop.
“My main interest in forestry in Georgia comes down to the advocacy and education of others, especially the younger generations,” Chelsea said. “Forestry is one of Georgia’s top industries and if we are not educating and impacting the future generations, then what will our industry become?”
Chelsea has held positions in outdoor education, working with a camp for individuals with disabilities and their families and as well as an environmental educator at the Rock Eagle 4-H Center.
Chelsea enjoys doing anything outdoors and spends a lot of her free time during the summer kayaking on the water or camping.
While Joseph has lived many different places due to his father’s career, he considers McDonough, Ga., to be his home. Joe is currently working towards a degree in forestry at Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, where he also serves as an Ambassador. This summer, Joseph will be working on researching leadership programs in Georgia and establishing GFA’s Forest Resource Teams (FORT) grassroots initiative.
Joe has served as a wildland firefighter for the National Park Service and has worked as part of the Fire Effects Crew at Grand Teton National Park in Northeast Wyoming.
“The lasting impact that I want to make in my career paving the way for our profession to be more inclusive of minorities,” said Joe. “I would ultimately like to see that our workforce reflect the diversity of the population within our country.”
Joe enjoys being outdoors as much as possible, whether that be hiking, exploring or reading a book in his hammock.
You may reach Joe at joe@gfagrow.org and Chelsea at Chelsea@gfagrow.org.