Connecting People to the Night Sky
By Hannah Burrows
My love of astronomy started with the star-filled night skies I grew up under. Seeing the Milky Way, our home galaxy, stretch across the sky every night inspired me to dedicate my life to studying astronomy and understanding the origins of this planet we call home. The more we understand our universe and how it came to be, the more we appreciate all of the beautiful sights the night sky gives us.
I’m very grateful to be able to spend this past summer as a Voyageurs Dark Sky Field Fellow, sharing my passion with visitors at Voyageurs National Park, a place very special to me. I have spent these past few months assisting with outreach activities at the park, developing my own programs to teach others about the night sky, and learning about community engagement from Conservancy and park staff. My portfolio project for the summer was a TENT Talk – Voyageurs Dark Skies & Beyond – an engaging presentation focusing on the history of astronomy, the big questions in modern research, and how preserving the night sky is important to continuing this curiosity. Through the Voyageurs Field Fellows program, I have grown as a science communicator and have built skills I will need to be a successful astronomer.
After graduating this past spring from Harvard University with a degree in Astrophysics and Earth and Planetary Sciences, I plan to continue studying astrophysics this fall and begin my PhD at the University of Chicago. My research will focus on how our planet formed and how other potentially habitable planets are forming. Throughout my degree and after, I hope to continue sharing what I’ve learned with others and connecting people to the night sky, fostering the same curiosity for the stars that I felt as a kid. My summer at Voyageurs has been a life-changing experience and an important first step in my career as an astronomer and educator.
Your support of Voyageurs Conservancy helps fund the Voyageurs Field Fellows program, which offers stipend-paid internship opportunities for students to get direct experience in conservation and public lands and develops the next generation of conservation professionals. Fellowships include environmental education, aquatic ecology and invasive species management, wildlife biology, cultural and historic preservation, dark skies, and more. voyageurs.org/give
