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Bel Air South, a small community close to Bel Air and Bel Air North, is representative of suburban Maryland with strong ties to nature and education. Though only a few minutes’ drive from Baltimore, Bel Air South feels like another world, particularly because of its unique establishment of the Harford Glen Environmental Education Center located at Harford Glen Park. Working in conjunction with local conservationist efforts, as well as the local educational system, the Harford Glen Environmental Education Center serves the youngsters of the community with dedication and expertise, which encourages a passion within students to not only protect the environment at large, but also take pride in the local climate and geography of Bel Air South.

In 1948, Harford Glen was acquired as a surplus site for local schools. Rather than build on the land, or develop it, the local school district decided to establish the area as an environmental education facility for public schools. The park consists of approximately 340 acres of upland woods, coniferous woods, open fields, two major streams, numerous smaller tributaries, marsh, and open water. A few buildings came with the acquisition of the property, notably a mansion house, and a few other structures have been constructed to facilitate the educational endeavors of the park’s administrators. These include a dining hall, two dormitories, classrooms, pavilion, and restroom, and shower facilities.

Public school students have the opportunity for hands-on, individualized learning at the environmental education center. The center’s curriculum focuses on sustainability practices, promoting a global and local awareness of environmental stewardship, and encourages responsibility of the individual to care for the world they live in. The staff who run the center are dedicated to these principles, and are trained to promote the best habits in the students they encounter, as well as live by example and not create more environmental impact than is needed so the park stays in pristine condition.

Working as a team, each student learns their role not only for the world at large, but what they can do individually to protect and preserve the natural world. With field experience, excursions, and exemplary teachers to guide them, students have the unique opportunity to develop water and solid waste management practices, learn about wetland ecology and other wildlife, as well as the nature of invasion ecology at the park. Wildlife trips for forensic purposes are also part of the curriculum, not to mention quarry trips and other field studies designed to provoke a passion for learning and the environment in every student that passes through the various programs at the center.

Like the staff at the Harford Glen Environmental Education Center, Grade Potential tutors work for the community of Bel Air South to help students find academic success. Though the process may not include outdoor excursions to local wetlands, tutors take time and effort to work one-on-one with students to help foster a passion for education within each individual client they serve. And, just as we are stewards of the world around us, tutors act as stewards of the students they are privileged to work with.