FIELD NOTES BLOG

Introducing Shannon

Shannon Osadjan
October 22, 2024

Hello! My name is Shannon (she/her/hers) and this is my first year serving as an AmeriCorps Environmental Educator here at Severson Dells! I am from Poplar Grove, IL and have spent most of my childhood exploring familiar Stateline attractions.



In Summer 2023, I graduated from Iowa State University with my bachelors degree in Geology and a minor in Environmental Studies. I’ve spent the past year exploring the United States and trying to see as much as I can (37/50 states, and counting). I’m looking forward to applying my education and travel experiences towards teaching the community. 



Since a young age, I have always had a great passion for nature and the great outdoors. Some of my earliest memories as a child are being at Rock Cut State Park, either fishing or floating on a kayak in the middle of the lake. I love going on road trips and I am always down for an adventure!



In my free time you can find me watching movies, hiking with my dog, at concerts, or nerding out on rocks. 



I’m grateful to be a new AmeriCorps member at Severson Dells and I can’t wait to see what I accomplish in my time here!


RECENT ARTICLES

Summer Storms: Meteorology and our Local Environment

By Sydney Sherbitsky • July 16, 2025
Summer days have an intense energy. For us, it’s easy to pack a lot of activity into long, sunlight-filled days. The atmosphere is packed in a different way, with thick, heavy humidity and sun-baked heat. You have probably experienced one of these particularly sweltering days where periods of calm are interrupted with a sudden summer storm. One moment you are relaxing, the next, you hear the rumbling of thunder, and it begins to rain, instantly cooling the hot ground and taking the stickiness from the air. You don’t have long to take in the scene as the intensity of the heat gives way to an intense storm. This is a different kind of energy in the air; this is a summer storm.

Nature's Blueprint

By Shannon Osadjan • July 3, 2025
Nature holds the answers for how to be more efficient with managing our supplies of earth’s natural resources. In fact, nature serves as the inspiration and blueprint for many structures and objects we use every day! Biomimicry is a practice of engineering that creates designs based on structures and sequences from the Earth’s natural world, including but not limited to plants, animals, and geographies. Biomimicry designs are meant to imitate functions that already exist and occur in nature. These designs are being transferred over and scaled up to provide solutions to human caused problems. There are three main core principles that make up biomimicry: recreating natural shapes, processes, and entire ecosystems.

Nature's Role in Early Childhood

By Alex Lunde • June 26, 2025
*please note: This blog was adapted from a blog series authored in 2023.