Castle Creek Wilderness © Julie Polovitch
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Brian Stultz
Prescott College Senior
Sycamore Canyon Wilderness steward
I heard about the AWC through Prescott College professor Doug Hulmes. At the time I was halfway through my first wilderness experience as an incoming student at Prescott College. I was immediately sold on joining AWC!
Upon returning to the front country I tracked down Sam Frank and asked how I could become a volunteer for this great organization. I was starving for the chance to contribute in any way I could and jumped at the opportunity to become a wilderness steward.
Being a steward has given me a great excuse to spend even more time in wilderness areas in ways that are so meaningful and rewarding. Since joining the AWC I’ve had an opportunity to be involved in many ways, including outreach events to the community, serving as liaison between AWC and Prescott College, co-facilitator for trainings and lectures, and my pride and joy project, to publish an invasive species field guide to help our wilderness stewards in the proper identification of non-native plants.
Sam, along with all the staff at the AWC have been an incredible resource to access during my time here at the college. I have the AWC to thank for helping me get “out there” to enjoy some of the great wild land and wild river treasures our state has to offer.
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West Clear Creek Wilderness © Brian Stultz
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Julie Polovitch
Prescott College Junior
AWC volunteer
I heard about AWC through my buddy Brian, who had been working for Sam Frank. I was looking for a work study job, so I asked Sam if he had anything I could do. To my luck, there was a plethora of steward-collected data floating around a galaxy of manila folders, post-it notes, e-mails, and word documents, just waiting to be gathered and organized into a database.
As someone who draws much satisfaction from organizing things, I gladly took on this task. I've been transferring all the steward field data on invasive species and recreation impacts into spreadsheets, picking up handy excel tricks along the way and learning about wilderness areas that I had never heard of before.
Subsequently, my 'places to visit' list is ever-expanding. My volunteer job has perks: a flexible schedule, a supportive work community, free Patagonia gear, the acquisition of transferrable skills, and, of course, meaningful work. It feels wonderful to be involved and to know that these databases will be a useful tool for the future management of Arizona's wilderness areas. I'm excited to see what doors this job may open.
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