SUNY ESF
Student Profile Carter Smith
Carter Smith ’25: Environmental Education and Interpretation
When Carter Smith was 14, she went on a hike led by an interpretive ranger. By the
end of the hike, Smith vowed to become an educator. “I’d wanted to do something with
the environment since I was a kid, like everyone else at ESF, but I didn’t quite know
what,” she said. “I found out on that hike.”
Two years later, Smith got a college admissions postcard from ESF. She loved the school’s environmental education major but wasn’t sure ESF would be an option; she lived in Virginia and had to pay tuition herself.
She looked at other schools, but none inspired her like ESF, so she took her general education classes at a Virginia community college. Then, she said, “ESF was the only college I applied to after that. When I got in with a scholarship, I was overjoyed.”
Now in her final semester, Smith works three jobs as an environmental educator and interpreter. At Beaver Lake Nature Center in Baldwinsville, she serves as visitor attendant and associate naturalist, leading hikes and creating nature programs for local school kids. “I love taking them on the bog trail, where I can point out the snapping turtles and plants that live in the lake but also talk about how it was formed by glaciers eons ago.”
Smith relishes her other jobs. She is a lesson planner for ESF’s Student Environmental Education Coalition (SEEC), leads science lessons at the Syracuse YWCA with Girls Inc., and assists with programs through the libraries and ESF’s Open Academy to bring local kids to ESF.
Postgraduation, Smith wants to stay in Syracuse, running a nature center or having a management position in a state or federal park. “I'm hoping to get more professional experience right now. Then I’ll be in a position to apply to a master's program,” she said.
Smith is grateful to the donors who made her attendance at ESF possible. “ESF has provided me with so many incredible opportunities I wouldn't have otherwise had. I appreciate you all so much!” she said.