Speaker focuses on the power of mentors
Imagine skinning skunks in a public setting for educational purposes.
Barbara Middleton, senior instructor in the College of Natural Resources, skinned and dissected skunks on a regular basis for visitors at Shaver’s Creek Nature Center in Pennsylvania, a hands-on learning laboratory center. Middleton and seven other individuals started as part of the graduate program at Penn State more than 25 years ago.
Middleton not only learned about skunks and the environment in Pennsylvania, but also learned about leadership, collaboration and life. As the third and final speaker in the Women’s Center’s Women in Leadership Lecture Series, Wednesday, March 25, in room 101 of the Merrill-Cazier Library at 2:30 p.m., Middleton will focus on how she believes mentors can be the greatest leaders.
“Many people look at success as where you finally arrive on life’s journey,” Middleton said, “but real success is not the end result. It’s everything in between. Mentors are those leaders who are part of the in between. They help you approach and work through life’s challenges. They see what you have to offer and what you are missing and help you develop and acquire those skills. It all depends upon your own journey and what you need in your life at that time and what you need to learn.”
Middleton said some mentors fade in and out of people’s lives, but they never forget them.
“Often when I have to make a decision, they come back. I find myself asking, ‘What would Jerry do in this situation?’ I have mentors that are still around from graduate school and some that were there in my childhood who have since passed away. But the legacies they left are still with me,” she said.
Mentoring, to Middleton, is a part of what makes people human and has a huge impact.
“Whether people are in our neighborhoods, family, boardroom or classroom, creating environments of kindness and value makes a big difference,” she said. “Often we don’t even know we are being mentors. People don’t come out and say, ‘You are my mentor.’ They usually just come back later and say how much they value what you gave
them or did for them.”
Middleton’s own journey in life has included earning her bachelor’s degree in elementary outdoor education at East Stroudsburg State College in Pennsylvania, nestled within the Pocono Mountains. She went on to get her master’s of science at Penn State in health, physical education and recreation with a focus in natural resources interpretation.
Middleton now works for USU and said her job falls under the umbrella of natural resource communications, which includes three departments: environmental education, interpretation and public affairs.
Middleton said her job entails teaching in the classroom, creating field work opportunities for students and partnering with community members to get grants and supply field work.
Past student projects have included creating two signs for the USU Greenville Gardens and the five signs located on the north end of Bear Lake at the National Wildlife Refuge’s Fish Ladder site.
Middleton’s students are currently involved in organizing the Arbor Day Celebrations in North Logan occurring this April. They had to learn how to collaborate with the North Logan Parks director and Tree Utah, which funded the trees.
They will also be working with the teachers, administrators, third, fourth and fifth graders of Greenville Elementary School, who will be planting the trees.
Middleton’s students are creating the educational program that will teach the children how to plant the trees correctly and why the trees are important to them.
“We create bridges that help people understand what they are experiencing and seeing in the world around them,” she said.
–jennifer.whiteley@aggiemail.usu.edu