Cooper Intern Profile | Briauna Jones
Feb. 5, 2021
Briauna Jones is a Coverdell Fellow. She did her Peace Corps service in South America in education and she is in the Teach Arizona graduate program in the College of Education, studying to become a middle school teacher.
Q. I know your focus is on virtual program development and facilitation - can you tell us more specifically the nature of your work with the Cooper Center?
I am working with the full time staff to develop programs that incorporate traditional
Q. What in your background and experience led you to the Cooper Center?
I was introduced to Cooper Center through an assistantship fair with my scholarship sponsor, The Coverdell Fellowship. This fellowship is nationwide and offered to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers; I served as a youth development volunteer in Peru from 2017 to 2019. While I was there, I worked mainly with an ecological brigade associated with the Yanachaga-Chemillen National Park. My background in working with students outside, and my own personal stoke for the outdoors, led me to fit right in at Cooper.
Q. What are you interested in doing professionally and how does your work at Cooper connect with your larger professional goals?
Currently, I am completing my Masters of Education through the TeachArizona program at the UA; my career goal is to be a middle school English Language Arts teacher. Working with the students and staff at Cooper is helping me to be a more well-rounded educator by working with participants in a discipline different than what I will primarily teach. If I think about my life many years down the road, I would like to work in education tangential to the traditional classroom and my experience with Cooper has only solidified that environmental education is something I am passionate about and is a field I would love to continue to work in.
Q. Can you bring to light one specific experience or memory from your work at Cooper? Something funny, or meaningful, or a learning moment for you?
One experience at Cooper that I am so appreciative of is the sense of community that the staff has. I was worried about moving to a new city in a new state during the middle of a global pandemic; I was mostly concerned about building community when the world shifted to virtual everything. Working with Colin, the staff, and the other interns quickly quieted that worry. I especially enjoyed our virtual holiday party that included trivia!