Earth Team Volunteer's Gallery

Come meet some of our finest — our Earth Team volunteers!

• A Unique and Productive Partnership
• Shalaunda Gourdine - No Office Work Please
• Amanda Hannen - Earth Team is a Learning Experience
• Corey Woldorf - Assisting with benchmark soil sampling in South Jersey
• Joan Rogers - What's a Woman To Do?
• Min Raibman - She keeps the office on the straight and narrow with her clerical wizardry UPDATED

A Unique and Productive Partnership and the Earth Team

Shalaunda Gourdine, Mildred Lopez and Heather Kutassy started working with NRCS in 2011 through a partnership with the New Jersey City University (NJCU) Student Internship program. They volunteered additional time beyond their original 8-week commitment, and assisted four offices with fieldwork, ranging from inventory and evaluation to engineering surveys to a grassland habitat follow-up research study.

NRCS Biologist Evan Madlinger and Human Resource Manager Mayra Morales worked with NJCU to select the interns, and they were responsible for general oversight of their work. “They were a great group to work with,” said Evan, “and I hope they consider applying to NRCS in the future.”

To facilitate that possibility, Mayra conducted a USAJOBS.gov workshop for the volunteers, during which she reviewed position qualifications and the application process, especially from her HR perspective. “I believe we were very successful in providing the volunteers tools to pursue their goals within NRCS,” Mayra remarked. Paige McMahon, Amanda Hannen, Liz O’Rourke, and Julie Guerrara, also college students who had volunteered in the Vineland field office, the New Jersey NRCS State Office, and the Cape May Plant Materials Center also took advantage of the training provided by Ms. Morales.

NRCS Earth Team volunteers assist in a wide variety of ways, including field surveys, conservation planning, Geographic Information System (GIS) data layer organization, public outreach, and plant research.

No Office Work Please - Shalaunda Gourdine tells of her experience as an Earth Team Volunteer

Starting an internship with the United States Department of Agriculture NRCS, I did not know what to expect. The one thing that I did know was that I did not want to spend a summer sitting behind a computer, a telephone, or a filing cabinet. I wanted to spend my summer using my environmental science degree to continue learning in the field. NRCS helped me do just that. After doing research and informing myself about pollinators, the buzz of the season, my first day at NRCS was spent in the field. I got the opportunity to meet a producer who was receiving assistance on a pollinator habitat to enhance honey production. By the end of my first week at NRCS, every day was spent in the field. Also during the first week, the other interns and I were asked to complete a project that mapped all the grassland habitats managed under the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) located in Somerset County. It was exciting to receive an assignment in the county where I was born and raised. I was able to familiarize myself with wildlife habitats that I have unknowingly driven past numerous times.

As the weeks continued, working on the grassland project was a main focus; however, it was not the only focus. I was able to attend different types of training like conservation planning, and ruminant and equine nutrition training. I learned how to interpret a soils map to conduct highly erodible land determinations. I helped plan a wetland project, and few weeks later I was able to see the construction and implementation of that wetland. I assisted in three land surveys and a cultural resource assessment.

The amount of knowledge that I have gained through NRCS is unprecedented. I realized that working in the field and helping people are two things that I wish to continue in my career. By the end of the internship the only way I can describe what NRCS does is by their motto “We are helping people help the land.”

Volunteering for Earth Team is a Learning Experience - by Amanda Hannen

Working at the NRCS State Office in Somerset has been a great experience for me. I have been able to bring things I have learned in my classes at Rutgers University into the tasks I am doing here. While working with Barb Phillips, I produced posters for Cumberland, Atlantic, and Cape May counties about irrigation management, conservation efforts with erosion control and soil quality. I have learned about many of these topics in my courses in Environmental Policy and Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers. My academic background gave me a new perspective to design the posters to be used at the county fairs.

I also helped put together a Power Point presentation about the 2011 NJ Envirothon. I was unfamiliar with the Envirothon, and although I did not participate in it, I learned a lot about how the competition works. In putting together the presentation on the NJ Envirothon, I learned about the opportunities an organization like the USDA gives to high school students to learn more about natural resources and gain an interest in science related fields in college.

Most recently, I have been inventorying and organizing the legacy imagery that is on file at the State Office. This is an important task because I know that data for certain areas can be hard to obtain. Organizing this legacy data gave me a chance to see that there is a lot of data to be found and organized here! Finding missing data is especially important because some projects would not be possible if some of the aerial imagery is missing.

Learning about GIS has also been a very rewarding experience. I have realized that learning how to use GIS software can help me in the future. For instance, I observed how GIS was used for the State Resources Assessment (SRA). As a Planning major, I appreciated how GIS allowed NRCS to look at the state’s natural resources comprehensively. I also saw that GIS can be used at the local level, for mapping wetlands and sinkhole potential, for instance, which is important for understanding how development should be limited in certain areas. In urban areas, which I specialize in at Rutgers, GIS can be useful to map areas of lower income housing with chemical spills and higher levels of pollution to study environmental injustice. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to volunteer my time at the NRCS office in Somerset and have even registered for some basic level GIS courses at Rutgers for in the fall semester in order to continue my internship experience.

Note: Amanda’s supervisor, NRCS GIS specialist Trish Long, noted, “It has been great working with and getting to know Amanda. She has been a tremendous help with our GIS and soils data, and is always very enthusiastic.”

Corey Woldorf - Assisting with benchmark soil sampling in South Jersey

Corey Woldorf has more than just the muscle it takes to turn an auger. Corey, a junior at Kutztown University in Maxatawny, Pennsylvania, is majoring in geology. He is spending time this spring and summer as an Earth Team volunteer helping Susan Demas, MLRA Soil Scientist, in a Benchmark Soil Sampling Project in South Jersey. Besides helping with soil descriptions and soil sampling site location using GPS technology, Corey will be collecting soil samples for full chemical and physical soil properties.

Corey was a member of the Kutztown University wrestling team in the Spring '09 and the Fall '08 when it was ranked in the top twenty schools in the nation for Division II wrestling. Besides lending muscle to the Earth Team program, he tends to a dozen Arabian horses on his family farm in Camden County, New Jersey. In addition, he helps his father with landscaping and construction contracting. Corey also brings skills in driving and repairing earth moving equipment. While not working, Corey enjoys western style horseback riding and fishing.

A benchmark soil is one of large extent within one or more Major Land Resource Area (MLRA), one that holds a key position in the soil classification system, one that has special importance to one or more significant land uses, or one that is of significant ecological importance.

Joan Rogers - What's a Woman To Do?

Joan Rogers is a mother of seven girls and grandmother of four who works a full time job with the USDA Farm Services Agency. These responsibilities would be enough for most women, but not our Joan. She also volunteers for the Earth Team. Joan is the one who organizes, tallies, and files all the personnel information for the hundreds of Earth Team members who volunteer each year for the Earth Team.

Her supervisor, Ken Taaffe, likens her to the elves in the Fairy Tale, "The Elves and the Shoemaker." In this fairy tale, you may recall, the shoemaker cuts out the leather for the shoes to be made the next day. He then wakes up in the morning to find a perfect set of shoes made. After several shoes are completed during nights, the shoemaker stays up and discovers that elves come out after dark and complete the shoes. Well, Joan is the same as the elves. Ken leaves the work to be completed on a table … and Joan does it before the crack of dawn!

Min Raibman update, December 2006:

Min Raibman was honored for her 15 years of volunteer service by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on Friday, December 15, 2006. The agency recognized Ms. Raibman for her service during their All Employees Meeting and Awards Program held at the Rutgers EcoComplex in Bordentown.

Min works one to two days a week at the agency’s office on Kozloski Road in Freehold. Now, just this side of her 91st birthday, the Manalapan resident still gives the same answer when you ask her why she continues to volunteer. “It keeps me off the streets,” she says.

Min Raibman - "It keeps me off the streets," she said with a wink.

Min has alternating working as a WAE (when funds are available) and volunteering her time at the Freehold Service Center at least 1-2 days per week since 1991, keeping the field office on the straight and narrow with her clerical wizardry and motherly scolding. She started her SCS/NRCS career as a youngster with the Senior Volunteer Program of Monmouth County.  Min Raibman started her career with the "Earth Team," NRCS's volunteer program, when the agency was still known as Soil Conservation Service (SCS) and she was 75 years young.

When you ask her why she continues with her commitment to NRCS, she explains, "It keeps me off the streets." You have to look closely for her wink, because she really doesn’t need anything else to keep her busy. Min has had a full volunteer schedule not just with NRCS, but also with delivering Senior Meals and the Good Neighbors Program, for which she drove folks in her development to doctor appointments and shopping, until she gave up her driving privileges this past winter.  She now keeps busy with volunteering at the children’s ward at Freehold’s Centra-State Hospital in addition to a very active social schedule with friends and family, not to mention hosting weekly canasta games.

Min is in charge of filling and tracking soil survey orders via an Access database, creating cooperator folders and address cards, mailings, keeping our literature and form supplies stocked, and a dozen other tasks essential to running a field office. We’re very lucky to have her on the Earth Team. She has definitely left her mark everywhere in the Freehold office, and we just don’t know how we’d get along without her.

When she manages to find some spare time, Min loves to bake, see shows on Broadway and at the Paper Mill Playhouse, and dote on her family, especially her two great-granddaughters.

Last Modified: April 02, 2012