Nicole LeBlanc – Updating the Community Resilience Workbook
2024 Mitchell Center Intern
Academic Program: English, UMaine
Project: 2024 edition of the Community Resilience workbook
Team Leaders: Katie Swacha, UMaine; Parker Gassett, UMaine; Nathan Robbins, Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection
Why are you interested in the problem you are working on?
As an English major who is also interested in sustainability education, this project was a perfect fit for me. I wanted to do something to contribute to how people understand living in a changing world and how to work with it, using my technical communication skills.
How could your work contribute to a sustainable future in Maine and beyond?
My work writing for and organizing the Climate Resilience Workbook aims to make it more accessible to the municipal and community officials who rely on the resources it provides. By streamlining its information in practicable and implementable forms, including case study examples, as well as keeping it all up to date, will help communities using it as a reference have an easier time making decisions on climate adaptation strategies.
What do you feel are the most important skills that you bring to your internship?
I’m excited for this opportunity to use my experience as a liberal arts double major to improve both the writing and design of the workbook’s second edition, as it has never had someone with my background work on it before.
What have you learned through your participation in this internship?
I’ve already learned so much from this internship. It’s been incredibly fun as a writer working with scientists and learning about the technical details of science communication. I’m so grateful as well to be invited to meetings of several Maine organizations that work directly on climate impact mitigation and resilience, to just soak up the knowledge that was until now been out of my area of expertise.
What are your personal goals for this internship? What do you hope to accomplish?
My main goal is to be proud of the second edition of the Climate Resilience Workbook, and to make friends and connections with people I never would’ve met without this internship.
How do you like to spend your free time/down time?
In the summer, you will only find me outside (probably trying to identify as many plants as possible). I love to dance, read nature writing, and write poetry. I also really want to explore more hiking places in Maine, as a Massachusetts resident!
What’s your ultimate Maine experience?
I would say the long drives with friends back and forth from the mountains in the Rangeley region each winter. Driving back from skiing Sugarloaf or Saddleback as a sunset paints the snow-covered fields in pink and purple is a memory I’ll never forget.