Teacher’s Life Work Inspires $100,000 Endowment for Shaver’s Creek

By Christie Black

UNIVERSITY PARK — Joan Turns’ relationship with Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center goes back 30 years when, as a mom and retired biology teacher, she would often visit with her children.

She soon began volunteering for the Maple Harvest Festival and eventually pursued a new career as the coordinator for school day programs. Joan retired from that position in 2013, but it’s a role she has found difficult to step away from and continues to volunteer. She and her husband, Steve, have decided to turn that passion into a financial commitment to the Penn State nature center in Petersburg.

“Shaver’s Creek is wonderful, the people are wonderful and the experience has enabled me to continue teaching,” Joan said. “The day program gives children a chance to get outside of the classroom. It is a joy to see the astonishment in their eyes when they turn over a rock and see a salamander for the first time—some kids said the experience was the best day of their whole life! Steve and I want to ensure that joy continues for kids in the future.”

The couple has created the Joan Turns Endowment for School Programs at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. The $100,000 endowment will be used to secure staff and resources to meet the needs of the Shaver’s Creek school day programs and to assist in reaching underserved school districts that wish to add the field trip to their teaching curriculum, but may not have it in their budget.

“The staff at Shaver’s Creek does excellent outreach to the community,” Joan said. “The school program was in existence before I came along and will go on after, but the continuation for the children—thousands of children—is imperative.”

Steve also dedicated his life to educating others; he spent 35 years as part of the faculty in the College of Engineering at Penn State and retired as professor emeritus of mechanical engineering. He said he wants to see the work Joan dedicated her life to, go on.

“The secret to being a good teacher is enthusiasm for the subject matter and empathy for the students. Joan always had both,” Steve said. “It’s important that her life work be invested in. I have seen the joy she has had while working with these kids and I vicariously share that with her. I want to see her work continue. Our world depends on how these kids turn out.”

Joan said she wants to see the torch carried forward so the program can continue to evolve.

“As a teacher, you have to care about your students, and then we’ll become a better person than we were when we came in,” Joan said. “Each person who teaches or volunteers at Shaver’s Creek has brought something to it. The people there are family. It is not a one-way street. I’ve always received as much as I’ve given while there.”

Ellen Will, director for the Outdoor School at Shaver’s Creek, shared an office with Joan for many years.

“Joan was a wonderful mentor to our interns and I also valued her creativity and dedication to school day programs,” Will said. “Her contributions to Shaver’s Creek, however, go beyond her leadership of school day programs. She volunteered in other program areas and for years has been making lovely 19th century costumes for the cultural history lesson at Outdoor School. When the counselors ask where I got the costumes and I tell them Joan made them, they are always impressed.” 

Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center is an outreach service of Penn State. It recently went through a transformation through a building campaign that raised $1.5 million from philanthropic gifts. After being closed to the public in 2016 for a two-year renovation and expansion project — its first since the center’s founding in 1976 — Shaver’s Creek reopened in the fall of 2018.