My Nonprofit Reviews

My name is Geoffrey Selling. I am a Penn State Extension Master Watershed Steward, a Streamkeeper with the TTF Watershed Partnership and a weekly volunteer involved in restoring the riparian buffer on Rock Creek in Curtis Arboretum--work for which the PSU Extension gave us an award for EXCELLENCE IN A RESTORATION PROJECT for the 2021 project year.
Almost all of us involved in watershed and stream restoration work depend heavily on the leadership, research and findings that come from the Stroud Water Research Center. The rigor of their scientific work, the reliability of their findings and their outstanding efforts to communicate this information through published papers, workshops, trainings and the like make Stroud the “go to” source for the most accurate information about watershed restoration, tree plantings, water sampling, macroinvertebrate research and so much more. It is rare for there to be a training or workshop in the watershed community where Stroud’s name isn’t referred to many times. When there are differing opinions about how to proceed on a project, one often hears: Let’s ask the Stroud people or At the last Stroud training we attended, Stroud said that the best practice was XXXXX. That usually settles the matter!
I am now six years retired from my work as a lower school science teacher at the Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia. The entire fourth grade curriculum at the time was about water, watersheds, stream testing etc. Much of the curriculum I developed for the children was based on summer workshops I had attended at Stroud. When I was nominated for a Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching in 2015, I submitted a video of a watershed lesson—based on material learned at a Stroud Center workshop. Not only did I win one of the PAEMST awards, but the adjudicators commented very positively on the rigor and thoroughness of the scientific content of my fourth-grade lesson. I could trace that lessons right back to summers spent at Stroud workshops.