Sierra Nevada Alliance

Annual Report Fiscal Year 2019-2020 SNAP… cont. diversity and inclusion of people from different backgrounds on campus. While she had been previously fixated on the importance of biodiversity, she realized that diversity in human populations is just as important. she found herself with two passions, one for the environment and one for social justice. She tried to follow what she thought in her gut was what she had always wanted to do in working in conservation doing research. She frequently felt frustrated feeling like she wasn’t making much of a visible difference and craved the interaction with people that she was so lacking. In addition to this, she began to realize how uniform the workforce was in natural resources. As much as we preached for preservation of biodiversity, the diversity of humans was severely lacking. She felt compelled to do something to better our world. She began looking for other positions and stumbled upon the Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership. She feels honored to have been chosen to serve 11 months as the Education and Outreach Coordinator at South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL), an organization focused on preserving nature through community action. For the first time in a while, she feels like she is where she is supposed to be. Working with the community has been a wonderful experience and being able to outreach to people of all backgrounds to get them involved with caring for the environment is a gift that she could not be more grateful for. At SYRCL they say that they believe that people can save a river. With the beliefs she’s built up over time, she doesn’t think she could agree more. She will continue to push for the preservation of diversity across the board, whether it’s in species, habitat, or people. We are thrilled to have Shannon as a member of our SNAP Alumni Board and returning to serve a second term with SYRCL and SNAP in the 2020-21 term! 12