2009 Henry Meigs Scholarship Award Recipients
The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2009 Henry Meigs Scholarship Award
Ms. Pamela M. Serenty, Teacher, Philadelphia Mennonite High School
A letter from Pamela M. Seretny
Recipient of the 2009 Henry Meigs Scholarship Award
My journey as a naturalist has had many seasons. As a child, I loved the outdoors and expressed an early interest in the sciences and the arts. In 1977, I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Art Education from Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. In 1981, I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Therapy from Ohio State University as well.
As an occupational therapist, I utilized the outdoors extensively as tool to reach troubled teens in a private psychiatric hospital, but in 1985, my husband and I moved to Philadelphia in order to minister in the city. I decided to attend seminary and received a Masters of Theological Studies in 1996 from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary and for the past ten years I have poured my energy into teaching art and science to high school students from the city at the Philadelphia Mennonite High School.
The Schuylkill Center has played an immense role in my work with teens at the high school. Before being hired at the school, I worked as an education instructor at The Schuylkill Center during the summer of 1998. I absolutely loved teaching and looked frequently at the advertisement for the Arcadia University environmental education masters program. Once I began at the high school there was a strong desire to develop an environmental science program and I fit the bill. The best part was that the school offered to pay the costs for me to get the environmental education certification. Now I got to take great classes at SCEE with outstanding teachers and apply all that to teaching at the high school.
Two years later I received the environmental education certification and soon after was invited to participate with my students in the envirothon, a county wide competition held at SCEE. Eight years later my students and I are still participating and our school proudly displays the numerous awards we have won. We even got to go to the state competition twice! My students and I have greatly benefited from the extensive training and support provided by SCEE for this competition. I have watched students learn bird calls, measure and identify trees and most of all develop a deep appreciation of the natural world. My desire is for my students to live out a Christian worldview in a way that demonstrates a deep care and concern for God’s creation. I try to live and teach this worldview and I am grateful for the tremendous resources available at SCEE.
