Welcome to Friday Feature! Every Friday we feature someone involved with ARC, including Board members, Junior Board members, staff in the field, and our volunteers and interns. We hope that this new feature will help you to get to know the many faces behind ARC and connect with our mission on a deeper level. This week we are featuring our newest addition to the ARC team – Brooke Camps, who joins us this summer as our Communications and Development Intern.  Brooke is a rising senior at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where she majors in Business and Enterprise Management, with a minor in Environmental Science, and a concentration in Environmental Science Management and Negotiations. When she graduates she wants to purse a career that involves both business and environmental science. When everything is said and done, Brooke really just wants to make a difference in the world, however big or small. Getting to Know You… How did you first get involved with ARC and when?  I discovered ARC this past year while I was in the midst of my search for the perfect summer internship. “Perfect,” to me, meant finding an organization that would encourage me to pursue my passions for the natural world. In March, a family friend learned about ARC through one of the organization’s Board Members and I was immediately hooked. I started my internship on June 1st, and already, I can honestly and whole-heartedly report that this experience will be   life changing. How have you been involved with ARC most recently?  I am currently focused on acquiring sponsorships for ARC’s upcoming Junior Board event. In addition, I am reading through technical reports from the field in Tanzania and pulling out the highlights for ARC’s website and communications materials. Of all the places you have traveled, which resonates most with you?  The place that resonates most with me is Little Saint Simons Island (LSSI), an undeveloped, barrier island off the coast of Georgia. For a little over a century, my family has been involved with the conservation and management of the island. I live in New York, but my most cherished childhood memories consist of hiking, biking, fishing, birding, and horseback riding on the island. LSSI is a piece of me, and it is one of the main reasons that I am devoted to preserving the environment today. It often feels like one person can’t make a difference supporting the many environmental causes there are today. What small steps can people make to help conservation/preservation efforts in Africa or globally?  My advice is to start in your own home. We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, and inhabit the same planet, so localized efforts today will ripple outward and reach Africa and the rest of the globe tomorrow. If you make incremental changes to your everyday life, if everyone makes one small change today, then we can make a difference that will be felt around the world. So, turn off the faucet while you are brushing your teeth, turn off the lights when you leave a room, or pick up an environmentally-friendly water bottle, and you will contribute to the conservation and preservation of our world. What inspires you and how do you live it?  My favorite quote: It’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again. – Eric Roth I am inspired by every word of this quote. It makes me feel as though I can be anyone or do anything. I absolutely love it. What do you do in your free time?  I run, practice yoga, draw, or hang out with friends. These are my own ways of de-stressing. What was the last book you read?  I am in the middle of reading “The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean my Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun.” The author, Gretchen Rubin, dedicates an entire year to being happy, and the book chronicles her research, her experiences, and all of the lessons she learned along the way. I was drawn to this book because Rubin emphasizes the importance of setting achievable goals and making small, manageable changes in your everyday life. Her message parallels my beliefs on how people should approach the issue of sustainability. What is playing on your iPod lately?  I listen to everything, but for some reason, I always go back to Bob Marley.