Hawk Mountain Sanctuary intern reunion draws scientists from the U.S. and 13 countries

May 11—Seth Benz got more than he expected when he signed on as Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's first intern.

His work with the raptor conservation center in Albany Township set him on a career path in environmental education with a focus on birds.

Benz, who grew up in Fleetwood, was a senior majoring in environmental studies at East Stroudsburg University, Monroe County, when he arrived at Hawk Mountain in the fall of 1976.

"My reason for wanting to come here in the first place was to study the fall migration, to actually help identify and count the birds moving down the Kittatinny Ridge," he said. "But that's sort of the glamour part. The other part that I did was clean toilets and man the reception desk. And I did all the manual stuff."

The internship led to a six-year stint as assistant curator of the sanctuary and an impressive career of more than 46 years in his field, including over 12 years in his current position as director of the Schoodic Institute Bird Ecology Program in Acadia National Park, Maine.

Benz, who holds a master's degree in environmental education from Lesley University, Cambridge, Mass., returned to his native Berks County for a two-day weekend celebration of Hawk Mountain's 90th anniversary.

The event kicked off Friday evening with the sanctuary's annual benefit dinner, held for the first time on the mountaintop.

Guests enjoyed the wet spring evening with catered food, live music, avian ambassadors and a prize raffle under a tent on Hawk Mountain's grounds.

The celebration continued Saturday with an intern/trainee reunion and seven-hour symposium, featuring talks by graduates of what has become Hawk Mountain's international training program.

Nine presenters from eight countries focused on the status of global raptor conservation.

Saturday's event also celebrated the memory of Dr. James Brett, who died at age 84 in December, 2023.

Brett served 26 years on Hawk Mountain's staff and is credited with developing and expanding the sanctuary's outreach and educational programs, including the internship program, which became an internationally recognized conservation traineeship under his leadership.

A graduate of Gov. Mifflin High School, Brett earned a bachelor's degree in education from Kutztown State Teachers' College, now Kutztown University. He completed postgraduate studies at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. and University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Cal. He was presented with an honorary Doctoral Degree from Kutztown University in 2011.

Brett was the last person to hold the title of curator of Hawk Mountain.

Now known as president, the position is currently held by Sean Grace.

Grace was on hand to welcome Benz and about 50 other alumni of the internship/training program to the gathering in the sanctuary's amphitheater.

The symposium was also open to the public and offered a virtual option.

The $10 per person ticket included access to the sanctuary's trails.

Attendees came from several states and 13 different countries, said Dr. Laurie Goodrich, Hawk Mountain's Sarkis Acopian director of conservation science.

The group shivered in the chilly morning air as Grace and Goodrich, who oversees the trainee program, got things started by welcoming attendees and thanking all those who worked to make the event possible.

Goodrich also took a few moments to eulogize Brett, pointing out his vast contributions in founding and growing the trainee program.

"The reason that we're all sitting here today is really because of Jim," she said. "He had the vision for this training program and internship program that provided experiential education to people in education and in science."

More than 500 trainees from 76 countries and 6 continents have graduated from the program, she noted.

Goodrich also acknowledged Brett's sons, Andrew Brett of Kutztown and Matthew Brett of Lenhartsville, who were in the audience, before turning the program over to Ana Maria Castano, a member of Hawk Mountain's board of directors.

Castano of Medellin, Colombia, introduced the speakers, beginning with Dr. Jennie Duberstein, a 1996 and 1997 alumna of the trainee program.

"It's truly an honor to get to come back to a place that was so formative for me," Duberstein said. "I truly can trace everything in my career that has come as a result of the people that I met here, the experiences that I gained and the skills that I learned over the course of the six or so months that I was here."

As Sonoran Joint Venture coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, she oversees a program that connects people from southwest U.S. and northwest Mexico to collaborate on bird and habitat stewardship.

Duberstein, who holds a doctorate degree from the University of Arizona's School of Natural Resources and the Environment, also directs field courses, summer camps and other programs that help connect young birders to educational and career opportunities.

Other speakers included Castano; Dr. Ernesto Ruelas Inzunza of Mexico; Dr. Todd Katzner of Boise, Idaho; Diego Mendez of Bolivia; Martha Mutiso of Kenya; Merlyn Nomusa Nkomo of Zimbabwe; Dr. Chong Leong Puan of Malaysia; and Dr. Wouter Vansteelant of Belgium.

Like Benz and Duberstein, most got their start in the conservation field after training at Hawk Mountain.

"I know it sounds hokey," Benz said, "but there's not a day that goes by that I don't think of and have some sort of network connection to what I did here."