From Shaver’s Creek to Ghana and beyond, a Penn Stater is building community

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center has been a part of Celia Graef’s life for as long as she can remember. From attending summer camp as a child to working and studying at the center as a Penn State student, Shaver’s Creek has been a foundational part of her experience.

“From a very young age, I was deep in the Shaver’s Creek community, and it has definitely helped me as I have been able to keep Shaver’s Creek and the lessons I learned there as I have gone on my journey,” Graef said.

That journey has taken her far. After graduating from Penn State in 2024 with a degree in agricultural and extension education from the College of Agricultural Sciences, Graef spent a year in Ghana as a fellow in the International Agricultural Education Fellowship Program (IAEFP), teaching agriculture practices to school students.

Now, she is set to continue making an impact as she begins her first year teaching environmental science in Massachusetts. Graef said at every stop along her journey she is working to build the same sense of community that helped her grow at Penn State and Shaver’s Creek, which is a service of Penn State Outreach.

“Because I was part of such a strong community growing up and going to school here, I definitely realized that community is one of my biggest values,” Graef said. “I now try to find that everywhere else I go.”

Planting a seed

When looking back at her time at Shaver’s Creek, Graef frequently spoke of “camp magic,” which is a term used often by campers and staff.

As an example of camp magic, Graef mentioned a tree that branches over one of the many trails at Shaver’s Creek like an arch. People walking by might not notice it, but campers know it as the "wishing tree."

“Every time you pass under it you make a wish, and it might come true. It is small things like that are not entirely necessary, but they add magic and help build appreciation for nature and the outdoors,” Graef said. “To me camp magic means taking mundane things and making them more exciting and fun just by changing your perspective.”

It might be the camp magic at Shaver’s Creek that helped to shift Graef’s perspective on her future too, she said. Growing up teaching was not on her radar, even though both of her parents teach at Penn State.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher,” said Graef, looking back with a knowing smile. That began to change when she participated in the Shaver’s Creek Summer Camp Leader-In-Training (LIT) program as a high school student.

In the program, Graef was able to share her love and knowledge of the outdoors to help young campers have positive experiences. She said the opportunity helped her build confidence in teaching and working with others.

“It also gave a few of those light bulb moments that people always talk about when it comes to teaching where you see something click for a student and it is all worth it,” Graef said.

As a college student, she continued to develop those light bulb moments for young campers at Shaver’s Creek, she said, working as a naturalist right alongside many of the same former campers she grew up with.

“I think that says a lot about the community that Shaver’s Creek cultivates, because a lot of these people were part of Shaver’s Creek since they were 5 years old. Then we all wanted to come back and dedicate our time working there because of how much the community means to us, and share it with the next generation,” Graef said.

Those experiences helped persuade her to switch her major from immunology and infectious disease to agricultural and extension education, she said.

During her sophomore year, she spent a SEED Semester at Shaver’s Creek, learning and earning credit with like-minded classmates engaging in real world, hands-on experiences teaching children and families about the natural world.

“SEED is where I started tying place-based education into my teaching philosophy,” Graef said. The approach uses the local community and environment as a starting point for teaching by emphasizing hands-on, real-world experiences, connecting students to their surroundings and fostering a sense of place and belonging. 

Then, while student teaching at a rural school district in Pennsylvania with a fellow former SEED Semester participant, she said she realized that she could use her educational philosophy and background to make an impact in a classroom setting.

But, with her background of studying international agriculture, she had one more itch to scratch before settling into a classroom full time.

Building community

Established in 2018, the IAEFP provides fellowships to eligible U.S. citizens to assist developing countries in establishing school-based agricultural education and youth extension programs.

During her fellowship, Graef was placed with a host family in a small community in Ghana. There she worked at a local school to help develop a school farm and integrate agriculture into the school’s science curriculum.

Her goal, she said, was to build something that would thrive after her term of service was over, and she knew she needed buy-in from the community to make it happen.

“I realized the importance of community support because we were not working with a lot of money,” Graef said. “So, I worked to become a part of the community and show them what we were doing. That education was important. Hopefully that helped to build the sustainability of our project.”

To help establish her presence, she said, Graef worked to learn Twi, the Akon dialect that is commonly spoken in the area although English is the official language; and the customs of the community by integrating herself in daily life. Right away, she began taking walks so she could interact with others in the community and help them work on their daily tasks.

“I wanted them to know that I wasn’t just walking by or passing through, but that I was there to stay and there to help,” Graef said. “I saw the impact this had when we started our project because then people would ask about how it was going and got excited about helping out.”

She said while working with the students she often harkened back to the skills she learned at Shaver’s Creek to help encourage them to set small goals, make decisions and become leaders.

Now back in her home country, she said she is going to take the tools she developed at Shaver’s Creek and Ghana to a classroom in New England this fall, teaching at a school for English language learners. One of her first goals is a natural one for her.

“I am going to take with me that I need to be a part of the community first before the community can trust and understand what I am doing,” Graef said. “It is about integrating into the community base to become a better teacher and be able to do place-based education. It all comes back to community.”