Brianna is studying classics and Spanish at Kalamazoo College. This is Brianna's first year working at KNC, but she was a camper herself many years ago (for several summers) and can't wait to return! Brianna loves climbing trees, smelling flowers, animal watching, rock climbing, hiking, exploring, listening to the sounds of nature, lying in the grass, and running around (basically, all things outdoors!). She enjoys everything about camp: playing games, eating sack lunches, being on the trail, crafts, singing (even when we do it badly), building friendships and fostering a love of nature. She knows that this summer at KNC will be the highlight of her year and can't wait to meet the campers!
Dan Noteboom – Senior Educator
Freshly graduated from Parchment High School, Dan will soon be attend Kalamazoo Valley Community College to become a Paramedic. This will be his third year at KNC and my first as a senior counselor. He has been coming to camp at KNC since his middle school days and worked his way up until he couldn't be a camper anymore, so he became a counselor! Dan absolutely LOVES to be outside. He has a blast doing anything really, but especially kayaking/canoeing, camping, and most of all, hanging out with awesome kids all day long. Dan is super excited for camp and can't wait to shriek in terror as a really determined camper lands him in the dunk tank on Friday!
Melissa Vader- Senior Educator
Melissa is a recent graduate of Kalamazoo Central High School and will be attending Michigan State University in the fall. She plans to major in Mathematics to become a teacher and minor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. This is her first year at KNC, but she spent a lot of time hiking there when she was a kid. Melissa loves everything about camp, but especially enjoys singing camp songs and going on nature hikes. She is very excited to spend her summer in the beautiful Michigan outdoors and is really looking forward to KNC!
Tanten Buszka - Junior Educator
Tanten attends Loy Norrix High School. This will be his first time working at KNC, but he volunteered at camp last year. Tanten attended KNC as a camper for a “gazillion” years, and enjoys many sports like soccer, track, and football. Tanten’s favorite thing about camp is getting a tan and playing in the mud!
Chyna Curtis- Junior Educator
Chyna attends Portage Northern High School, and is an entering sophomore this year. She enjoys dance, theatre, nature, gardening and children. She has 4 older brothers and 2 sisters. Chyna’s family had the opportunity to foster a child with Downs Syndrome for 9 months last year and the experience was as rewarding as it was educational for her. I've attended Sherman Lake camp since 2nd grade. This summer she will attend the Leadership Development Camp and hopefully bring and incorporate those skills in working with the children at KNC! Camp at KNC is a way to build friendships, leave the city life behind, develop a respect and love for nature, and most of all have fun!
Tess Duncan - Junior Educator
Tess Duncan is a rising senior at Kalamazoo Central High School where she has played varsity soccer and has run cross country for the past three years. Though this is her first year being involved at KNC, one of the best parts of Tess’s summers for the past six years has been as a camper and part of leadership week at Van Buren Youth Camp. She is an animal lover who used to have her own dog walking business and is currently a dog/cat/fish, etc. sitter for many of her neighbors. Tess is involved with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and one of her favorite things to do is to spend time volunteering at the SPCA.
Michelle DeVillers - Junior Educator
Michelle has worked at KNC since 2010 and is all sorts of excited for this summer! She just graduated from Mattawan High School and is attending Western Michigan University in the fall to major in Technical Theater. When she isn't busy eating pineapple, hiking, and showing kids Jewel Leaf, she likes to bake cakes and wear headbands.
Ivana Garcia - Junior Educator
A Kalamazoo Central High School student, this is Ivana’s first year working at KNC, but she hsa been a camper at KNC for two years. KNC is the only camp she’s attended, but says it’s been a great experience. Her favorite thing about camp is meeting new friends there and getting to know each other through camp activities. Ivana likes hiking, reading, singing, and learning new things, whatever they might be. Right now she is learning Korean!
Molly Lynn Garcia - Junior Educator
Molly is starting out her first year at KNC camp! She currently attends Portage Northern high school, home of the Huskies. She enjoys getting her hands filthy with mud and searching for creatures in streams. Molly attended KNC camp for four years. She loves camp because she enjoys meeting new people and learning new things. She is thrilled to meet the KNC campers and help them to learn to love and respect wildlife. In her free time Molly performs in local theater productions, cheer leads for Portage Northern high school, and explores around the stream in her neighborhood.
Annalise Glas - Junior Educator
This is Annalise's second year taking on the amazing position of Junior Educator! She is very exited to start another awesome summer! Annalise is a senior and is currently homeschooled. Her favorite subjects are Social Science and Biology, and she loves sharing the interesting things she learns with campers. Annalise LOVES crafts and helping kids express what they see in nature through art. Annalise also enjoys- theatre, knee-boarding, birdwatching, tree house building, camping, and never gets tired of playing her guitar.
Scotty Hancox - Junior Educator
This is Scotty’s first year working at KNC. He attends Mattawan High School, class of 2012, began camping at KNC as a kindergartener, and attended until his tenth grade year. He is also a library page at the Parchment community library - Go Reading!!!!! Scotty has always wanted to be a camp counselor and looks forward to a great summer at KNC. He loves to read, watch movies, sleep in my hammock, act in his high school's theatre program, cook, and aimlessly wander through nature :)
Kaitie Janecke - Junior Educator
Kaitie is returning for her third wonderful year at KNC Summer Camp. A former KNC camper, Kaitie graduated from Mattawan High School earlier this year, and she will attend the University of Michigan in the fall. She plans to study major in biology, minor in environmental science, and further her interests in the arts, world politics, and observing happy squirrels. Her favorite things to do at camp include listening to bird calls, catching frogs, and attempting to sing louder than all of the campers put together!
Karen Musser - Junior Educator
Before working at KNC Camp, Karen had been a loyal volunteer for a year. After that year Karen decided to work at KNC Camp, 2011 is her second year working here. Along with being a volunteer for camp and a counselor for camp, Karen was also a camper when she was a kid! (Camp was her favorite part of the summer!) When she was a kid she loved hiking, and now she loves hiking and nature photography. Just recently Karen graduated from Plainwell High School (yay!!) and plans to attend college.
Sophie Swenson - Junior Educator
Sophie attends Lane Tech College Prep High school in Chicago and has worked at Kalamazoo Nature Center Camp for one year. (This will be her second!) Sophie has been a river trek camper at KNC twice, and has loved every second of being a camper! Sophie loves to go to the beach, climb dunes and swim, not to mention walking around KNC and looking under rocks for cool things to find (she always puts everything back the way she found it). When she’s not at camp, Sophie loves reading books and practicing writing, as well as silk-screen printmaking for her other job. She can't wait for camp, and wants to make this the best summer she's had yet!
Natasha Thannhauser - Junior Educator
Natasha has been going to Mattawan schools since she was in the third grade. She plans to study art at WMU or Kendall College. This is her first year working at KNC, but has been a volunteer in previous years. Camping has always been a big part of her life. She remembers many great experiences back when she was a camper at KNC, this is why she wanted to work here as a junior counselor. Her favorite thing about camp was the night hike. She tells the story, “We camped far away from light because eyes take a few hours to adjust to the dark. After sunset we could see in some of the darkest places. When we were in the woods, my counselor preformed an owl call. Within minutes we had a big owl right next to us! The owl saw that we were not another owl, lost interest and flew away. This was a quick and safe experience I will never forget.” Natasha wishes to share experiences like this, safely, with other new campers. She is so EXCITED for camp!
Sean Waples-Dexter - Junior Educator
Sean will be a senior this coming year at Plainwell High School (Go Trojans!) He plays trombone in the Plainwell Marching Band and has been in the band for the past 3 years. His sport is Tae-kwon-Do & he has a 1st degree black belt & is working towards his second degree. Sean loves to build and learn new things about the outdoors. He has worked for the group trout unlimited and loves fishing. Sean volunteered last summer at the KNC helping with the campers. He had such a great experience he is now back as a junior counselor. Sean is really excited for camp this year and looks forward to working with the kids.