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February 16, 2008

Bringing nature to the children

'She takes an interest in her work. She likes it to mean something"

By RYAN HAYNER

PLATTSBURGH -- Jan Daniels wasn't a fan of running in circles.

Using the track never seemed interesting when she was a Beekmantown High School cross-country runner.

Instead, she chose to run through places like scenic Point au Roche State Park.

She grew up in Cumberland Head and often watched deer walk through her backyard cornfields.

She found that running through these nature-rich environments provided a much deeper experience.

"It felt like it was always an adventure. It was so much more of an outdoor experience."

Those outdoor experiences have come to define her career and life.

WRITING GUIDE

Now 30 years old and named Jan Wellik, she is the director of Eco Expressions, a nature-writing program for youths that she founded in 2004 with funding support from Wild Gift, a non-profit environmental leadership organization based in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Wellik self-published her "Nature Writing Field Guide for Teachers" in October 2007. The guide is described as a "unique curriculum to combine two major academic subjects, English and science, into one scholastic adventure to revive the enthusiasm to learn."

It is being utilized by Kindergarten-to-12th-grade teachers in several states, including New York, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan.

An expanded version of the guide is being considered for publication by a writing curriculum publisher. The revised edition will have additional activities for grades six to 12 and be organized by environmental issues so teachers can choose activities that match the classroom lesson.

Her father, Terry Daniels, who owns a sign business, will provide illustrations for the book.

Her mother, Marion, said she and Terry are proud of their daughter's accomplishments.

"She takes an interest in her work," Marion said. "She likes it to mean something."

CHILDHOOD INFLUENCES

Wellik credits her love of the outdoors to growing up in the North Country and to the simple, traditional way of life she learned as a child while spending summers on her grandparents' farm in Harperfield with her brother, Jesse.

She remembers being around the animals -- cows, goats, chickens -- and learning how to pick fruits and vegetables from the farm's garden and raspberry patch and sell them at their roadside stand.

"I just loved it," she said.

After attending SUNY Albany for English and journalism and working for newspapers in Massachusetts and Wisconsin, she settled in San Diego in 2000.

An eye-opening experience working with at-risk youths sparked her to start Eco Expressions. Since then, she has received grants to implement her program, including $40,000 to set up an Eco Expressions after-school program in Blaine County School District in Hailey, Idaho.

EVOLVING

Eco Expressions is on a path to becoming a non-profit education organization this year, and Wellik is searching across the United States for educators to make up a board of directors.

She will finish her master's in English through distance learning with Middlebury College this summer, and her husband, Michael, will be finishing his master's in biology at San Diego State University this fall.

She said her dream is to establish a writing retreat center in either Wisconsin or Michael's home state of Minnesota.

Now her back yard is the Pacific Ocean, a big change from the North Country cornfields.

Wellik is doing what she loves for a living. Nature is her office, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

"The closest I've ever worked in a cubicle was for a newspaper.

"I have to spend half of my day working outside, and I'm lucky I get to hike with kids and do things like canoeing.

"Creative writing by canoe -- I mean, my gosh, that's like a perfect day."

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