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	<em style="font-size: 12px;">Today, there are over 4,000 Au Sable alumni around the world doing great things to serve and protect our precious natural world. Profiles in Stewardship shares the significant accomplishments, enduring effort, and lasting effectiveness of Au Sable alumni as they seek to do God&#39;s work in the world. We hope these stories create a space for mutual admiration, common purpose, and collective achievement among all those doing creation care. &nbsp;In two words, true community. To learn more, read Executive Director Fred Van Dyke&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="{filedir_11}news_and_resources/blog/introducing_profiles_in_stewardship_by_fred_van_dyke_executive_director#.UX6fYrU3uSo">introduction to this blog series</a>.</em></p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}IMG_4667.jpg" style="font-size: 12px; width: 133px; height: 200px; float: right;" />Curtis Witek (Au Sable alum &#39;12) finds his calling at the intersection of urban life and environmental sustainability. An Environmental Studies (B.S.) major with an Urban Studies Certificate from Wheaton College and a Land Resource Analyst Certificate from Au Sable, Curtis has focused on issues of urban watershed management in his home place of Chicago. Urban environmental issues are on-going and require navigating complex social and environmental dynamics to ensure that both people and the local environment thrive. &nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12px;">Curtis&#39; most recent position, a fellowship with the National Park Service in their Rivers, Trail and Conservation Assistance Program, requires building community coalitions with diverse constituencies to solve community problems and take advantage of community assets.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 12px;">We caught up with Curtis to learn more about his work in Chicago.</span></p>
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	<strong style="font-size: 12px;">What do you do in your current position?</strong></p>
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	<span style="font-size: 12px;">As the community assistance arm of the National Park Service, we provide a variety of services to local partners like strategic planning, partnership development, trail and water trail planning, meeting facilitation, open space conservation, and others. We work with partners that have a vision for a trail, park or restoration project in their community, and help them translate this vision into on-the-ground action by providing technical capacity where it&rsquo;s needed. &nbsp;My position requires me to do a number of things: c</span><span style="font-size: 12px;">ommunity engagement, planning and delivering community and youth outreach activities, helping conduct public meetings and workshops, doing research, and preparing maps and conceptual plans using GIS and other programs.</span></p>
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	<strong style="font-size: 12px;">Why is this work important to conservation? &nbsp;</strong></p>
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	<span style="font-size: 12px;">This work is important because we translate conservation-related plans, visions&mdash;or even more nebulous ideas&mdash;into an attainable, on-the-ground project, while engaging diverse communities throughout the whole process. &nbsp;</span></p>
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	<strong>What was most memorable and important to you about your time at Au Sable? &nbsp;</strong></p>
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	<span style="font-size: 12px;">It&rsquo;s hard to pinpoint what&rsquo;s most memorable and important; I think of my Au Sable experience as a whole and as a time when I could debrief from four years of college and center myself (spiritually, physically, and intellectually) for the next phase of my life. Having the opportunity to think deeply in this way, in a beautiful setting, with great people, while honing additional environmental skills and knowledge, was most important to me.&nbsp;</span></p>
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	<strong>How does your faith in Jesus Christ affect the work you do today? &nbsp;</strong></p>
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	<span style="font-size: 12px;">My theology, which most importantly is marked by my faith in Jesus Christ, is at the root of everything I do vocationally. I believe Christ is reconciling </span><em style="font-size: 12px;">all things</em><span style="font-size: 12px;"> to himself. This includes the broken relationship between people and the creation. Christians are called to participate, in some small way, in this redemptive work. When I&rsquo;m helping a community plan a water trail or brainstorming how to get youth (re)connected to the outdoors, I see that as a redemptive activity and part of my calling as a Christian, not just a task at work.&nbsp;</span></p>
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	<strong>How did your time at Au Sable help prepare you for what you are doing now? &nbsp;</strong></p>
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	<span style="font-size: 12px;">As I said before, Au Sable provided me the time and a venue for some deep soul-searching. Most importantly, it offered me the space to hone it a robust ethic&mdash;one that combines my faith, passion for cities and the environment&mdash;that I now take with me into any job or further education. I think Au Sable best prepared me for what I&rsquo;m doing now by strengthening these more foundational, core beliefs. I also think the more technical and scientific knowledge and know-how that I learned through my Au Sable courses gave me that edge to get a good first job right after Au Sable.</span></p>
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	<strong>Why do you think people should continue to study at Au Sable today? &nbsp;</strong></p>
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	<span style="font-size: 12px;">I think people&rsquo;s reasons will vary based on their stage in college and personal goals, but if you&rsquo;re willing to really open up to the whole Au Sable experience, it could help you answer why we are called to be stewards of creation and how you can become a part of that story.</span></p>
