Spring 1999

[TEXT ARCHIVE WEB-PUBLISHED MARCH 2002.
ORIGINAL PRINT PUBLICATION DATE: SPRING 1999.]

Katie Sosin: Grass Roots Girl

By Greg Melaik

Love of nature may start in many ways, but often it starts with digging in dirt. At least it did for 12-year-old Katie Sosin, who recalls helping her mother plant flowers and digging for treasures with her older brother. As long as she can remember, Katie has had a fascination with the outdoors and all the living things in it. She cites a third grade writing assignment as bringing her interest into focus. "We had to create a book about an animal," Katie recalls. "Fun facts like where they lived and what they ate. I loved ring-tailed lemurs from Madagascar, so I wrote about them."

Sue Law, Katie's science teacher at Kerkstra Middle School in Oak Forest, remembers observing Katie on a field trip to Swallow Cliff Woods in southwestern Cook County. "Katie was deep in prairie grass with this giant praying mantis — showing it to everyone. Even the macho, too-cool eighth-grade boys. And she was only in the sixth grade!" says Law, who describes Katie as "a big person on the inside wrapped in a small package."

"She has an eye for detail, focusing on little things adults wouldn't see," says Law. "But she sees the big picture, too." Katie's balanced perspective helped her through a difficult time. Her dog, Muffin, disappeared — she thinks the victim of a coyote. Her understanding of the relationship between the habitat loss and the loss of her pet to a predator demonstrates her ability to recognize the connectedness of nature. "As I learned more, I began to understand everything comes together, like the food chain," Katie says. "If you let one population or habitat go, you're letting them all go."

Sue Law established and supervises the Kerkstra Environmental Science Club, which is the inside home for 30 emerging nature enthusiasts, including Katie. The club's major ongoing concern is the restoration project at Swallow Cliff Woods that features remnant oak woodland and savanna. The project requires a year-round commitment. In the fall, students collect seeds of native plant species, bring them back to school for propagation in the greenhouse, and then plant the seedlings at the preserve in the spring. During the winter, the club helps clear the preserve of invasive shrubs and trees, such as buckthorn, that have gained a stronghold and interfere with the survival of native flora and fauna.

The students also oversee a garden they created in their school's central courtyard. Five years ago, the place was a nondescript plot of grass. But Law had an inspired vision and now the courtyard features native wildflowers, a traditional tailored garden, birdhouses, a path with benches and a bridge, and a compost pile. Adjacent to the garden is a greenhouse where the Swallow Cliff seeds are cultivated.

Katie keeps a journal filled with scientific observations and poems, she loves to read, and she devotes herself to the scholastic bowl, drama club, and basketball. Katie is optimistic about her peers and how they will meet the environmental changes to come. They just need a little direction, she says, and that can come from developing a relationship with the outdoors. "If you don't interact with nature every day, you'll forget it," she says, a touch of earnestness in her otherwise even tone. "Lots of kids and adults don't think about nature much. If they did, I know they would want to protect the environment. That's why the club is so important, because it provides a way to experience nature and a way to help. I don't know how I' m going to make a difference, but I will. Right now I just want to experience everything."