-Written by Ashlea Raemer

Ashlea Raemer visits a farm that uses llamas as potential livestock guardian animals, which is a wildlife-friendly strategy for managing the wildlife conflict of livestock predation in the Adirondack park.

This summer I am working with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Program in Saranac Lake, New York through the Upstate Institute Summer Field School to promote wildlife-friendly farming practices in the Adirondack Park. The Wildlife Conservation Society is an international non-profit originally founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society. Today they are perhaps most known for the Bronx Zoo, but their mission to protect wildlife and wild places is implemented in priority regions across the globe. In the Adirondacks, WCS uses applied science and community-based conservation to link wildlife, wilderness, and human well-being through an interdisciplinary approach. Read more

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Claudia Buszta ’19 at one of the properties protected by the Southern Madison Heritage Trust

-Written by Claudia Buszta ’19

This summer, I have the privilege of working with the Southern Madison Heritage Trust (SMHT). SMHT is the local land trust that serves the general area of Hamilton, NY. It is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that conserves land for the benefit of the overall community. These lands are preserved for the purposes of protecting valuable habitats, resources, scenic landscapes, and historic features. SMHT currently manages five properties within and around Hamilton, each of which has their own unique features. Members of the community who wish to see a certain piece of land conserved can contact the land trust and either donate or sell their land outright, meaning that SMHT will own and operate the property themselves, or set up a conservation easement on the property. In this way, SMHT is an important part of the community and allows for meaningful land to be preserved for generations to continue to enjoy and use.

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-Written by Erin Burke ’18

Erin Burke ’18 at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro

This summer I was fortunate to have the opportunity to intern for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOFM), located in Peterboro, NY. NAHOFM is a non-profit museum that explores the history of American abolition by offering exhibitions, guided tours, educational programs, and special events. NAHOFM’s main historical exhibition spans from antislavery agitation in the Colonial period to the Reconstruction amendments that granted African Americans citizenship and African American men the right to vote. Although NAHOFM is a museum that ostensibly deals with the past, NAHOFM interprets the history of abolition to be living history that continues up to the present day. NAHOFM thinks beyond abolition and questions what legal equality really entailed and entails. In the period following Reconstruction, the establishment of Jim Crow, poll taxes, and the KKK sought to deprive African Americans of their rights and restore white supremacy; today, institutional racism and a resurgence of racist politics continue to oppress Black Americans. NAHOFM’s mission statement reflects their commitment to sharing the past in order to question the present and imagine a better future: “The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum honors antislavery abolitionists, their work to end slavery, and strives to complete the second and ongoing abolition: the moral conviction to end racism.”

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Lizzy Moore ’20 displays at the Madison County Fair.

This summer I have been given the opportunity to work with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County through the Upstate Institute Summer Field School. Nationally, the Cooperative Extension System is an educational partnership between County, State, and Federal government that addresses public needs by providing non-formal higher education and learning activities to farmers, ranchers, communities, youth, and families throughout the nation. To achieve this, university faculty members translate science-based research results into language appropriate for targeted audiences. County-based educators work with local citizens and interest groups to solve problems, evaluate the effectiveness of learning tools, and collect grassroots input to prioritize future research. As New York’s land grant university Cornell administers the system in this state. Cornell Cooperative Extension is present in every county of New York State and all five boroughs of New York City, directly reaching 1.9 million people each year. CCE programming covers five primary mission areas: Agriculture, Community, Environment, Nutrition, and Youth and Families. CCE provides educational resources for people interested in starting an agricultural enterprise, or farmers and ranchers looking to innovate and remain viable. The agency runs the local 4-H program, which engages youth in agricultural and STEM activities. CCE also creates events and informational materials to educate the general community about local agriculture and environmental issues.

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Amanda Hauser ’19 uses her experience as an EMT for SOMAC ambulance in her research project with Madison County Emergency Management

Written by Amanda Hauser ’19

This summer I have had the opportunity to work with the Madison County Department of Emergency Management. The department has grown over the years to handle the many aspects of planning for disasters while also supporting local emergency responses and helping to keep people safe before an emergency can occur. Everyday they indirectly serve every community in Madison County and even communities outside the county, as large scale emergencies deplete rural resources quickly and multiple counties often have to share and work together. The department works together with other Emergency Management departments of different counties in order to understand their struggles–such as a shortage of paramedics and EMTs in the region–in order to come up with solutions to help everyone. In everyday work, the department keeps in contact with county and fire agencies to ensure that they are receiving all the help they need, whether it is training or additional resources. The department itself is very interconnected; even though each member is assigned to different tasks and projects, they all work together to share advice and their different viewpoints.

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Madison Perez with Upstate Institute Faculty Director Chris Henke at the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation in Saranac Lake.

This summer I have been warmly welcomed as an intern at the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation. This organization is a nonprofit that integrates scientific research, education, and public outreach centered around a beloved figure of the Adirondacks: the Common Loon. From the moment visitors walk through the Center’s doors, the mournful sound of this bird’s call ignites visitors’ passion for the outdoors and sparks interest in learning more about the creatures that inhabit it. The Center’s work takes place in various locations. The building itself houses a storefront and various educational exhibits for visitors that poses questions to volunteers and researchers alike. The second primary location is in the field: observing, banding, and occasionally tending to injured loons. The final location is a mobile one: at events and through other programming to engage the public. The Loon Center puts on a variety of programming, from guided tours to art shows to anything in between. By dividing itself as it does, the Center seeks to unite the community under a concern for the Common Loon. Read more

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Mackenzie Murphy at the Hudson Headwaters Health Network office in Queensbury

I spent the first part of this summer working as an Upstate Institute Field School Fellow at Hudson Headwaters Health Network in Queensbury. Hudson Headwaters is a nonprofit organization made up of 17 (soon to be 18!) federally qualified health centers in the Adirondack region. The Adirondacks are medically underserved, as there are few primary care providers for an aging population, and Hudson Headwaters provides a majority of the care for the large region it encompasses. With this in mind, Hudson Headwaters’ mission is to provide excellent, comprehensive healthcare and access to health services to everyone who needs it. Doctors in the Hudson Headwaters Health Network provide primary care with specialty services to people of all ages and had upwards of 391,000 patient visits throughout their network in 2017.

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Written by Miller Downer ’21

Miller Downer ’21 in front of the Village of Hamilton office.

This summer, I am working alongside the Town and Village of Hamilton to achieve Climate Smart Community Certification for both municipalities. Along with their usual governmental operations, the Town and Village aim to operate in a sustainable manner that can dissipate throughout the community, adopting green practices that ultimately aid the population at large. CSC Certification would only prove the lengths that the Town and Village are willing to go to create a sustainable community in cooperation with Colgate University, and by completing tasks that would aid Hamilton at large (and to an extent, its neighboring villages), the municipalities would become recognized in New York for their actions and endeavors to work towards a greener future as well as to become eligible for competitive funding to further their sustainability goals. Overall, the municipalities serve the people of Hamilton and neighboring communities, improving quality of life through eco-friendly practices.

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Written by Kayla Logar ’20

Kayla at the Adirondack Foundation in Lake Placid, New York

This summer, I am conducting research with the Adirondack Foundation on the different forms of funding for Adirondack-area nonprofits in order to help the foundation better understand where gaps and overlaps exist. There are myriad nonprofit organizations in the Adirondack Park, ranging from those that protect the beautiful environmental resources of the region so that they may flourish, to those that promote the cultivation of arts and culture. One common denominator among every nonprofit that I have encountered is the wealth of passion driving those who lead the organizations.

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Louis Berkowitz ’20 works with Attorney Susan Conn at the Legal Aid Society for Mid New York office in Utica.

This summer I am a Field School Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of Mid-York. The organization is a not for profit law office that provides legal advice and representation for civil cases to individuals that cannot afford attorneys in 13 counties surrounding the Central New York region. The staff attorneys assist clients in legal matters that can include: elder law, domestic violence, sexual assault, disability advocacy, foreclosure help, divorce, evictions, public benefit cases and unemployment disputes. Specifically, I am working on the Consumer Bankruptcy Law Project, which is a cooperative effort between the Legal Society of Mid-New York and the Upstate Institute. This project attempts to help individuals who have accrued significant debt because of domestic violence, medical expenses or unemployment. Once clients call the Legal Aid hotline about their debt, they are referred to my supervisor Susan Conn ‘79 who then screens the client to make sure they are appropriate for this specific project. Once a client is identified, I function as a paralegal to prepare various forms and schedules with the client. This paperwork is then forwarded to the Legal Aid Society’s network of lawyers that take bankruptcy cases on a pro bono basis.

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