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Alum Spotlight: Gabi Kinney
Meet Girl Scout alum Gabi Kinney, community engagement project manager for Wetlands Watch, an organization that’s all about preserving our environment. She grew up in Vermont where she spent many years as a Girl Scout and learned to love the outdoors. Those early years in Girl Scouting where she became a “protector of the environment” made an impression on her, and helped her choose her path in life. She studied Marine Biology in college where she became inspired by coastal ecosystems and how much humans depend on wetlands, oysters, and other sea life to survive and endure climate change. She says being a Girl Scout helped her connect with nature and care about the environment.
“As a Girl Scout, I always felt empowered that I could make a difference in my community and I always wore my badges with honor,” she said. “Growing up in Vermont was a special time — so much natural green space, and so many adventures to have with fellow Girl Scouts. Some of my fondest memories are camping in the Green Mountains with my troop.”
After Gabi graduated from UNC Wilmington, she moved to Virginia to serve an AmeriCorps internship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) where she worked in environmental education and land management for a year at the Eastern Virginia Rivers National Wildlife Refuge Complex. As she began pursuing a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development while working with USFWS, she realized she wanted to blend her love for protecting nature with the need to create meaningful and adaptive relationships between humans and climate change.
“I came aboard the Wetlands Watch team in 2022 to do just that,” she said. “I work to connect with people at the community scale and help them access data and resources that advances climate adaptation efforts. In addition to running a community science event that brings awareness to sea level rise, I am developing a K-12 environmental education curriculum with climate change awareness at its core, with particular focus on providing students with engaging field experiences to learn about climate change in their local communities.”
Her role at Wetlands Watch includes running their community science program called Catch the King, where volunteers (youth and adults) are invited to use a Sea Level Rise app to collect data about where it floods during the annual king tide in the fall. As sea levels rise, local planners and decision-makers need more data about where it floods so that they can put plans and projects in place that help protect communities and the people within. That’s where Girl Scouts can help.
Wetlands Watch has helped train Girl Scout troops in the Hampton Roads region to participate in Catch the King by joining in on troop meetings and teaching girls how to collect data using the Sea Level Rise app. They also help troops get registered for the event, provide training guides and yard signs for volunteers, and award stickers and t-shirts for participating.
“I envision a partnership with the Girl Scouts to extend to every coastal troop in Virginia and North Carolina,” she said. “Participating in a community science event can help Girl Scouts achieve the Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey as well as the Good Neighbor badge. The most important approach to climate change is that we are all active and aware of how problems such as sea level rise impact our neighborhoods. I think Girl Scouts can benefit in many ways from participating in this effort. When I was a Girl Scout, there was something so special about bonding with other girls my age through activities that were important to us. I felt like we built strong companionship through community action. Having other girls who loved doing the things I did, and having a close-knit troop to rely on through thick and thin, is the best part of the Girl Scout experience.”
