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Oustanding ENSP Student: Logan Kline

Image Credit: Logan Kline

October 18, 2017

This interview was taken on May 8th, 2017. At the time of this publishing, Logan has accomplished much more and that will be discussed in the conclusion!

It was your typical spring day: the birds were singing, the sun was shining, and the air was crisp and cool as I awaited Logan Kline in an open-air atrium of Hornbake Library.  The chlorophyll of the surrounding trees reflected a deep green as a certain freshness hung in the air.  Suddenly, a figure appeared on top steps of the atrium.  The birds began to sing a little louder, the sun began to shine a little brighter, and the air became just a little crisper and cooler.  The smiling face of Logan Kline, the president of University of Maryland’s premiere environmental club “ENSPire”, materialized as she descended into the trees towards the concrete floor.  She gave me a warm greeting as we clasped hands and sat next to one another on a wooden bench amongst the trees- maple if my memory serves me.  We exchanged pleasantries then commenced the interview.

Ricky: Hello, Logan. Thank you for meeting with me today. First question: what is your name?

Logan: Logan Kline. You have it at the top of your paper.

R: Ah yes it seems that I do.  What is your major, concentration, college, and year?

L: My major is Environmental Science and Policy, concentration is Marine and Coastal Management, I am a sophomore, college is Agriculture and Na- well no it’s not. It’s Behavioral Sciences, so BSOS. I keep forgetting I’m not in AGNR.

R: Did you just switch colleges?

L: I switched concentrations so I was switched into BSOS.  All ENSP majors start in AGNR. But once you get accepted into a concentration, you switch into the particular school that your concentration is a part of.

R: What led you to choose environmental science as a major?

L: I wanted to help people somehow but I didn’t know exactly how. I originally applied to UMD as an econ major and then decided that I wanted to do environmental economics because I thought teaching businesses how to do things sustainably was the way to go, and then I realized I wanted to be more involved with actual people. Not businesses and math. And I found that in environmental policy there is much more focus on actually talking to people and getting involved with people, and actually changing people’s perceptions rather than businesses. So it’s more of grassroots type of perspective and I thought that that was a really interesting and good way to going about making environmental changes and helping people environmentally.

R: Yes, definitely. What environmental activities/ clubs are you involved in?

L: Have you ever heard of ENSPire before??

R: Interestingly enough I have!

L: No way! Well I am the President and one of two Junior Representatives of ENSPire. I became president back in September 2015… no September 2016; I can’t do math.  It has been absolutely fantastic. We do a lot of environmental service activities, we get people out and about in the environment. We have a lot of networking for ENSP majors as well as career building activities and workshops.  I am also a member of the Wildlife Society.  I will also be a sustainability advisor in Fall 2018.  So I will be going around to Freshmen classes like UNIV100 and HNRS100 and teach them about the University of Maryland’s sustainability objectives and plans, the sustainability fund, ways that the students themselves can get involved in sustainability initiatives, and information about the sustainability minor. 

R:  What “ENSPired” you to join the club, and what pushed you to rise to the top?

L: I helped start the club. It was actually formed by Ryan Block, Hope Loiselle, and Ori Gutin. They needed people- I’m so distracted by the bird over there I’m so sorry. Anyways, Ori sent out this form asking people if they wanted to be representatives for their class and I was a freshmen and I wanted something to do and I had no friends so I was like, ‘I’ll try this out!’ So I became the freshmen representative and they were looking for a secretary position, so somebody who would send out message, keep minutes, etc. etc. I volunteered and became secretary for Spring 2016.  Then Fall 2016 I had taken a lot of the leadership initiatives, got the club signed up for First Look Fair, got the club involved in various other activities.  We decided we wanted the club to expand the leadership positions and I really wanted to be the president, and here I am!

R: What are some specific events/ activities that ENSPire does?

L: We started off by doing Q and As with faculty, staff, and alumni.  We also do social events like, “Hot Chocolate Night” because a major priority of the college is to bring the ENSP students back together because there are so many concentrations that are so far reaching that sometimes we get separated and never see each other again.  Our main goal is to bring everybody back together and make a sort of ENSP family.  We then branched out a bit to ask guest speakers to join us, get more involved with First Look Fair, we do Earth Day Fest, we go hiking to places like Great Falls, we do clean-ups around campus, we collaborate with the UMD Arboretum and do tree plantings and other environmental activities.  We sometimes collaborate with Wildlife Society; we hosted a night where we invited people to create their own plastic cutouts to prevent birds from flying into their windows at home.  We love to get staff and students on the same page so we’re planning on conducting more staff/student roundtables and staff/student lunches to make sure everybody has a voice and can have some input.  We also helped choose the advisor.  We sat down with different candidates and we all loved Angela so she’s our advisor now. She’s so sweet.  She gave me a hug today.

R:  What would you tell incoming freshmen?

L: Give yourself time to figure out what you want to do and take classes from the different concentrations.  I came un gung ho for Society and Environmental Issues and I thought I was 100% going to do that and I signed up for a bunch of classes in that major, then realized I am not that into sociology but I loved my Marine and Coastal classes.  Get involved.  Find a cause that you love and pursue it. 

R: What is your favorite class in the ENSP program?

L: My favorite class is Environmental Law with Professor Joanna Goger.  I never wanted to be a lawyer.  My two things in life that I knew going into college was that I did not want to be an engineer and I did not want to be a lawyer.  But I took Professor Goger’s law class and even though I am more of a science person, it is a FANTASTIC foundation for all the different environmental acts.  So no matter what field you go into as an environmental person, you’re going to be influenced by these acts and will need to be aware of their implications. 

R: I took ENSP102 with Professor Goger and that is easily one of the most helpful classes I have taken.  What about your future plans?

L: This summer I am going to be interning at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge doing environmental education and interpretation which is going to be super awesome!  I had some experience with that with the internship I did last summer where we went across all of Maryland doing different environmental education stuff like osprey banding and teaching people how to plant things in wetlands.  For future life goals I am considering environmental education by going to NYU for a Master’s in Conservation Education or I might go into wetland science by getting a Doctorate from the University of Maryland in Wetland Science.  No matter what I do, I am certain that I am going to do the Peace Corps first. 

R: Logan, great interview.  Thank you so much for your time.  Let’s go save some more planet!

Logan Kline update 10/12/2017: “I interned at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge woo! I'm currently the undergrad rep to the Sustainability Council and chairing the Sustainability Fund Review Committee, a mostly undergrad group that assesses campus sustainability proposals and recommends some to the Sustainability Council. Still ENSPire president woo and now I'm also the Peace Corps Campus Ambassador so I teach students about the Peace Corps and how they can get involved after college. Still working in the wetland Ecology lab as well!"