"I go to church everyday," Nathan once told me. "The woods."
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| Nathan poses with his congratulatory banner outside of LRRD headquarters |
Rain or shine, under clouds or sun, in humid hundred-degree weather or an 8-below February day, you can find him in his sanctuary. Hiking through the woods, wading creeks. Restoring hiking trails or cleaning trash out of rivers. Or photographing beloved landscapes in the Cache River Valley.
Out of his love and respect for the plant and animal kingdoms, for the harmonious, natural balance of the earth, Nathan has made a hobby, an academic discipline and a career. His passion for protecting land, water and air led him to study forest resource management at SIUC, where he enrolled in January 2009.
And it led him to work for
LRRD, where we strive to educate students, politicians and the public about how rivers behave and how to manage them sensibly.
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| Nathan teaches at Carbondale New School |
We hired Nathan as prototyper in December 2010 while he was in his junior year at SIUC. This December, he graduated with summa cum laude honors.
Nathan proved himself to be an amazing student; with his 3.9 GPA, he was on the Dean's List all six semesters he studied at SIUC. He earned the SIUC
Environmental Ambassador Award twice for his outstanding service preserving the Southern Illinois wild.
At Little River, he builds the models we ship all over the world. He has used those models to share his knowledge and his passion with preschool, high school and graduate students around our local community.
We're proud of Nathan's accomplishments and honored to call him coworker, employee and friend. We have been inspired by his ability to juggle a seemingly impossible schedule of full-time studies, weekend volunteer work and his job here at LRRD.
Upon his graduation, we congratulate him and look forward to working with him full time.
Labels: nathan speagle, siuc
