Camper, LIT, Intern, Counselor: Mars Carstens

Mars Carstens, a senior in the Wheeler Magnet program at Wheeler High School, had the wonderful opportunity to complete their senior year internship at the Chattahoochee Nature Center. They spent the Spring semester as an intern under Christie Hill, Naturalist Manager, learning about what a career as a Naturalist entails and becoming familiar with the materials and programs the Nature Center offers. During their internship, Mars’ main project was updating the amphibian monitoring program by replacing aged monitoring stations. They used the updated stations to research different amphibian monitoring methods to study monitoring efficiency.

Mars visited the Chattahoochee Nature Center for the first time in 2013 on a day trip with their family to visit the Butterfly Festival. They have fond memories of the visit and especially remember getting to experience all of the wildlife on the aviary walk. They visited the Chattahoochee Nature Center a few more times over the next few years with family or on school field trips.

            Mars began attending Camp Kingfisher in 2015 and absolutely loved the program. They continued attending each summer as a camper until 2021, when they began participating in the high school Leadership In Training (LIT) program. In this program, they learned how to work well in a team and Mars links this program to their strong leadership and professional skills. This summer, they will be working as a counselor with Camp Kingfisher, thus achieving a ‘Legacy Camper’ status in camp!

            This Fall, Mars will begin their freshman year of college at Mercer University as a member of the Stamps Scholars Program. They are a Southern Studies Major and plan to pursue a minor in Environmental Studies. Mars is incredibly excited to begin school now that they’ve spent time exploring the industry they want to pursue.