FIELD NOTES BLOG

Sydney's Farewell

Sydney Sherbitsky
August 26, 2025

I’m sitting at my desk listening to the distant chatter of kids outside and the excited murmuring of my coworkers. I am surrounded by tokens of memories - a sticker from the rot museum and a walnut shell owl I made with campers. On my computer screen, a half edited video about the Grove. In my desk drawer, a stack of lesson plans I once felt nervous to teach, but I now know by heart. Next is the bigfoot code from the cryptid hike, handwritten notes from my coworkers, and the spot where my notebook lives. This notebook has been with me from the start of this position and is full of the many things I have learned at Severson Dells. As my time here comes to a close, I flip back through the pages and reflect on what the past year has taught me…

Discover Nature Hike Lesson Notes

When I first started at Severson last October I was trying to absorb as much information as possible, so I copied down some field trip lesson plans, one of them being: discover nature hikes. These hikes were always a magical experience and I was so excited to lead my first hike on my own. I have now led dozens of hikes in addition to the countless other field trip programs I have facilitated in the fall and spring.

We love Graphic Design!

I was introduced to Canva and Severson’s branding guidelines early and I learned how to connect with a wider audience on our outline platforms. I have written many informational blogs in this position, created many Canva Instagram posts, and edited many reels. Some of my favorite projects were the big melt blog, the animal courtship ceremonies Instagram post, and the kids FAQ reel.

Lesson Planning 101

I helped lead afterschool programs at two local Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the winter and spring that reached 500 students. The Boys and Girls Club program allowed me to learn how to write lesson plans, and after many edits, I taught those lessons at the afterschool program.

Watershed Management Intro

This program is where I found my teaching style. This winter we visited 5th grade classrooms across the Rockford public school system to teach about the importance of water management. I taught this lesson many times over, so I started to add my own twist to things: I named some of the animals in the model and pretended I was an evil mayor that polluted the water before we brainstormed how we could keep runoff water clean on its way back to nature. And just like that, teaching went from something that made me a little nervous to something I really enjoyed doing.

City Nature Challenge Game Plan

One of my goals is to become better at identifying species of plants, animals, and fungi. City Nature Challenge gave me the opportunity to fast track this goal in an all out “bio blitz” of identifying all things nature using iNaturalist. The staff also started competing to find the most bird species using Merlin Bird ID. I found 80 bird species!

RPS Camp Planning

The icing on the cake of my experience was directing RPS camp with my co-worker and friend Shannon. We designed and carried out a five week summer camp that reached 100 Rockford Public School Campers! Each week we led the campers through shelter building, owl pellet dissections, creek walks, and more. We had a lot of fun getting to know the campers and watching them become more comfortable in nature.

Sydney’s Farewell...

It is now time to turn the page. While I am not sure where the next step in my career will take me, like a leaf to the wind, I will take my experiences and memories from working at Severson wherever I may end up next. I dedicate my success in this position to Andrea, Elly, Liz, Ann, Laura, Becca, Linda, Emma, Shannon, Rowan, Mason, and Salem. After moving from my hometown in New York for this soul-touching work a year ago, each of you have made me feel welcome and helped me learn as an educator along the way. Thank you for making this such an amazing experience filled with potlucks, discover nature hikes, “if you can hear my voice…”, hiding taxidermy, “No, there aren’t alligators in the pond”, songs of the week, and friendship. 

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

RECENT ARTICLES

Summer Camp Reflections

September 3, 2025
As the summer camp season comes to a close, creek shoes are dried, crayons are put away, and our staff reflect on their summer of directing and supporting Severson Dells camp. This summer, they led and assisted with 9 weeks of summer camp programs that reached 211 campers! Out of the many adventures this season, here are some of their highlights and what they learned along the way.

Emma's Farewell

By Emma Zimmerman • August 26, 2025
When I started at Severson Dells nearly two years ago, I never would have believed I’d still be here today. What was supposed to be a short detour turned into one of the meaningful positions I have served. These years have flown by, and as I sit down to write this farewell, I keep circling back to my early days here. It feels important to revisit that beginning, because in so many ways, it shaped everything that followed.

Shannon's Farewell

By Shannon Osadjan • August 26, 2025
While my time at Severson Dells is coming to an end, my time and experience as a junior naturalist is just beginning. When I accepted this job position, I was a recent college graduate who was ready to get into the environmental work force but didn’t know where to start. Here I am, a year later, and I feel ready and excited to take on whatever comes my way. Last September, when I first started working here at Severson Dells, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never been an educator before and I was nervous about my skill-set, but I pleasantly surprised myself. I found myself enjoying teaching, and the goofy experiences and questions that came with it. When I started here, my biggest goal for myself was to become better informed about the ecology of Rockford, and being more aware and able to identify what’s growing around me. A year later, I am proud of myself and how much I have learned. Because of my schooling background being in geology, I already had a familiarity with looking at the outside world in a different lens. I know how to look at the geology and the basic layout of an area to understand the depositional environment, or what the land most likely looked like back in the day. However, being at Severson Dells for the past year has shown me how to appreciate nature and the outdoors in a new way, in a biological sense. I now know how to look at the ecology of an area and see how the plants are working together, and how this compliments what the birds and the bugs are doing, and how the trees play a role too, and this cycle keeps going. I knew forests were interconnected, but I feel like I truly get it now. It’s helped me to connect the pieces of nature that I wasn’t aware of before, and put them all together now to see a new, bigger picture. Severson Dells is a place I will always hold dearly to me. The experiences I had, the challenges I overcame while being here, and the personal growth I’ve been able to experience: all of this helps shape my love for this lovely forest preserve here in Northern Illinois. I want to be sure to express my appreciation for the staff here at Severson Dells Nature Center, and the kindness they always treat everyone with. The people here are always so willing to help me with learning new skills, diving into intimidating science topics, and trying to help foster that curiosity that everyone has inside of them. As I close this chapter, I feel inspired and grateful for the connections I’ve made, and ready for what the future has in store for me.