The Edgar Veillon Conservation Leadership Corps (CLC) program is designed to engage with and educate college students about conservation policy, advocacy and leadership to foster tomorrow’s conservation leaders in Louisiana. The CLC program allows students the opportunity to meet and interact with natural resource professionals from federal and state agencies, nonprofits, academia, and other professionals.
In the fall of 2020, Louisiana Wildlife Federation (LWF) recruited students for its third year class. The following students successfully completed the program in 2021:
- Gabriel Bourgeois (LSU)
- Guadalupe Estrada Cordero (LSU)
- Kaylee Cormier (McNeese)
- Devin Durgin (UL-Lafayette)
- Aaron Enlund (UL-Lafayette)
- Marion “Trey” Gray (Tulane)
- Samuel Hinerfeld (Tulane)
- Kari Hoover (Tulane)
- Lauren Johnson (LSU)
- Rebekah Lepretre (McNeese)
- Lindsey Oxford (UL-Lafayette)
- Carlie Rojas (UNO)
- Ria Salway (LSU)
- Abby Slatterly (LSU)
- Aundrea Smith (Dillard)
- Savanah Stokely (LSU)
- Aaron Taliaferro (La Tech)
- Marisa Terry (LSU)
- Tatianna Townsend (LSU)
- Sarah Vaz (Nicholls)
- Jessica Wright (UL-Monroe)
Four sessions were held during the spring 2021 semester once each month from January-April 2021. All sessions were held via Zoom due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year’s theme was Trash as Pollution in Louisiana Waterways. The CLC program allows students the opportunity to meet and interact with natural resource professionals from federal and state agencies, nonprofits, academia, etc. In total, 20 speakers from the following organizations, agencies, and institutions gave talks or presentations to students:
- Andrew Barron, Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program
- Mark Benfield, Louisiana State University
- Zac Burson, Louisiana Wildlife Federation
- Charles Caillouet, Louisiana Wildlife Federation
- Alex Carter, Louisiana Watershed Initiative
- Mike Daniels, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
- Chris Davis, Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries
- Dani DiIullo, Louisiana Sea Grant
- Greg Guidroz, Lafayette Consolidated Government Recycling Office
- Brianne Hendricks, Parish Proud
- Nathaniel Klumb, Paddle BR
- Lisa Mahoney, East Baton Rouge Parish Recycling Office
- Rick Moore, Keep St. Tammany Beautiful
- Niki Pace, Louisiana Sea Grant
- Larry Raymond, Louisiana Wildlife Federation/Shreveport Green
- Susan Russell, Keep Louisiana Beautiful
- Brady Skaggs, Pontchartrain Conservancy
- Jön Soul, Bayou to Bay
- Brad Spiegel, Louisiana Watershed Initiative
Students received a $200 scholarship check along with a certificate of achievement and letter of commendation for successfully completing the program.
While this year was surely different from the previous due to moving all sessions online, our third year was very successful. The students were very engaged and eager to learn from this year’s speakers. They also expressed interest in staying engaged with the CLC program and other advocacy work that LWF is involved in. We look forward to hosting a future event to bring the students together since we were not able to hold any in-person sessions this year.
LWF appreciates the support of the Stuller Family Foundation for its help in funding this year’s program. In addition, LWF thanks our Conservation Education Committee for their volunteered time and guidance as well as all of our speakers for their participation. We look forward to the continued success and growth of the program.
If you would like to help LWF fund programs like this, you can donate anytime at lawildlifefed.org/donate.