People passing through historic Fishtown this summer may see a familiar and friendly face once frequent around Leland.
Leelanau County native Emma Nelson is serving as Fishtown Preservation Society’s (FPS) summer intern this year, and she could not be more happy to be back home for the season.
Nelson is a 2023 Leland Public School graduate, and is currently going into her senior year at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor majoring in earth sciences and conservation biology. She comes to the FPS internship following a semester of study abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, another goal that Nelson always wanted to complete since she was a child.
After obtaining her bachelor’s degree, Nelson said she wants to continue her education to earn her master’s degree for sustainable systems through the university’s school for environment and sustainability program. Nelson said she chose to study sustainable systems to gain some more technical skills that would be good for her background if she ends up pursuing a career in renewables.
Finding the FPS internship was a perfect fit for Nelson as it highlighted her passions in the field and it also allows her to work in the place she grew up in. Nelson has always loved spending time outdoors, so when she learned of a program offered at U of M focused on environment studies, she took the leap and switched her focus of study from mathematics to earth sciences and conservation biology.
Regarding what kind of career Nelson wants to pursue after college, she said she’s split between going into renewable energy or a conservation job that involves being outside more. The FPS internship, she said, will hopefully help in figuring out what direction she wants to go in.
“I knew that I kind of just wanted to be at home, I was missing the up north vibes, so I was centralized around looking for internships here,” Nelson said. “I feel like the preservation society is very interdisciplinary, and the way that they combine not just the historic preservation part, but they also have environmentally related concerns and are working with the people. It groups everything all together and I thought it would be a really great experience to add breadth to what I’ve studied as well.”
Part of the internship requires Nelson to make connections and daily interactions with many working in and around Fishtown. She’ll be documenting her time here via a blog series that will feature “stories, reflections, and a behind-the-scenes look at life, history, and the environment” that help to make Fishtown everything that it is.
The connections Nelson’s made since starting in mid-May are part of what makes the experience invaluable, and of course, she said she loves having the opportunity to spend time learning about the history of her old stomping grounds.
“That’s what it feels like I’m doing this whole summer is networking my way around the county… I think that they’re (the blogs) a really good way to make myself reflect on what I learned in the past week,” she said. “I’m really hoping to just learn more about the place that I grew up in. My major and all my studies aside, I really enjoy learning about the history of this place more than I thought I would. I’ve always lived here, and every single day that I’ve been in Leland while working with the preservation society, it’s like I learn something new or I meet someone new and it’s just great exposure to the county itself. I think it’s really fun that I have the chance to talk to so many different people who all love the same place and they all kind of have a different outlook on it.”
Living in Ann Arbor to attend college means Nelson isn’t able to visit Leelanau County as often as she’d like, so she appreciates coming back home so much more now, even if it’s just for the summer. She said one of her favorite things to do when back home is to just drive around the county listening to music, something she said her father has also always loved doing while living in the area.
“I think I also just really like the aspect of being able to call my friends after a shift and we can all just jump into the lake,” she said. “I think at the end of the day, I have so much history up here that this is just always going to be a special place in my heart.”
To read more about Nelson’s reflections of Fishtown, check out her summer blog series online at https://www.fishtownmi. org.
