Metro Blooms has been thinking, “wouldn’t it be nice if the people we work with and outreach to knew us on a more personal level so we could really connect?”  Okay, not all of Metro Blooms was thinking this, but after attending a workshop on engaging people this past week, I certainly was (nice to meet you, I’m Laura, the MN GreenCorps member with Metro Blooms).  And what better place to get to know the staff and board members of Metro Blooms than on our blog!  So, I’m going to be posting a “biography” at least once a month about one of our staff or board members so that we can all get to know each other a little bit better, and who better to start with than myself!

As I said, I’m Laura Hurley, the new MN GreenCorps member that will be working with Metro Blooms until next fall.  I grew up in North Dakota and moved to Minneapolis to go to college at the University of Minnesota.  Once at the U of MN I studied Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology (quite the mouthful) and Spanish.  I decided it was imperative to my education that I study abroad and get as many field experiences as I could so I spent two weeks in Bimini, which is an island in the Bahamas, and got to study marine biology and shark ecology at a wonderful place called the SharkLab.  Unfortunately for my student loans, this just wasn’t enough travel, so I spent a semester in Costa Rica the next year and studied tropical ecology and conservation.  This is when freshwater conservation became an interest for me, but I’ll share that story a different time.  Back in MN I graduated from college and was accepted into the MN GreenCorps, where I could apply both my passion for conservation and my passion for working with communities.

Along with my enjoyment for travel and the work that I do with Metro Blooms, I Love fried plantains, being outside during every season (those fall colors and fluffy snow are like magic to me), and learning, which I realize sounds a little dorky but I just can’t get enough of it.  Now that I’ve rambled on for three paragraphs, I hope you feel like you know me a little better and we’re able to connect on something!  Stay tuned for the next biography, it’ll be a surprise!