Rachel Giemza

Summer & Special Programs Director/Naturalist

B.S. Zoology North Dakota State University

My position at Wolf Ridge entails a wide variety of hats. As the Summer Camp Director, I plan, organize and implement all of the summer programs here at Wolf Ridge. This means being a point of contact for folks when they or their campers are here, making the schedule and making sure any special events or activities in our family and youth camps are planned and ready to go! In addition, I work with the summer team to hire, market and train the staff for the summer before any campers get to campus. The other part of my position is to plan and execute programs that are special to Wolf Ridge, primarily those for adults. This includes the Weekends at Wolf Ridge and the Bird Banding programs. This really opens up the opportunity to create positive memories in the environment that will last a lifetime.

Over my career, I’ve had the opportunity to be at many different nature centers learning all kinds of programming and being part of various summer camps. And that’s where I found some of my favorite environmental programming, because it’s so different. It showed me how much of a positive impact we have with the students we teach. And it was this love of summer that brought me to Wolf Ridge in 2022 and I’ve been loving it ever since. In my downtime, I enjoy hiking with my partner, canoeing, just sitting in the sun reading or gardening.