Jeisanelly (Jessy) Hernandez joined the ANCA Team in May 2023 for a summer fellowship with the Adirondack Diversity Initiative. Jessy is originally from Springfield, Massachusetts and is a senior at Colgate University. At Colgate, Jessy is majoring in astrophysics and minoring in Spanish. They’re very passionate about the outdoors and mushroom and plant identification. They’re involved in Colgate’s Outdoor Education program where they lead camping, canoeing, cross country skiing trips and more. Jessy is also a member of the grappling club where participants practice different forms of submission-style martial arts such as BJJ, Judo, and wrestling and train for tournaments each semester. Jessy volunteers at the Colgate Greenhouse to bring other campus clubs and organizations into the space and help with their K-12 science outreach program.
Jessy’s role with ADI is focused on Visitor Use Management (VUM) in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks. The project aligns with the New York Department of Conservation’s efforts to pilot and assess a new method for managing and protecting the Park’s Forest Preserve. Jessy will conduct visitor surveys at trailheads and other points of interest, analyze data and provide recommendations to ADI and data to the DEC.