Where Are They Now? Jane Sunram

Though Jane Sunram served in the Corps more than 30 years ago, she still remembers her summer in the Young Adult Conservation Corps as a great opportunity that included hard work and changed her relationship with nature. Her crew was based in cabins at Lake Itasca, working days in the field. Sunram remembers carrying a heavy backpack full of water while doing prescribed burns, counting baby herons in a heronry, building steps to a lookout at Lake Itasca and counting trees to determine the success of wildlife exclosures. She came to appreciate hard work and the synergy of working as a team. “It was laborious work, but we took it in stride,” she said. “It was fun to see how much we could accomplish as a group.” Sunram currently works as a customer service representative at Forum Printing in Detroit Lakes, shepherding print jobs from customers’ hands to final products in an industry that is continually evolving. Her strong work ethic has served her professionally. And personally, her time in the Corps nurtured a life-long connection with nature that remains a rewarding part of her experience. Check out her beautiful gardens (shown in photo), planted almost entirely from seed.