Employee Vignette

 
Employee: Yamika Stokes
Location: Courtland, Virginia
Job Title: District Conservationist
Length of Service: 4 years

Incredible Journey

Yamika Stokes expected to be a researcher after graduating from Virginia State University with a B.S. in Plant and Soils, then the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a Master’s degree in Plant and Soil Science-Plant Genetics. Instead, she joined NRCS and has had an incredible experience working in different parts of the country and with different cultures.

“Everywhere I’ve gone, it’s been a new experience,” says Yamika. “I love the work I do -- it’s challenging and exciting. You have to know your comfort zone. I was just out of school and mobile, so this was a great chance for me to meet new people, learn new things, and expand my horizons.”

Yamika started as a Soil Conservationist in southeastern Minnesota under the Career Intern program. It was a heavy grazing area with cows and buffalo. “I knew nothing about livestock, but the people were so nice and I learned quickly. They were really curious about the differences between the South where I grew up, and the Midwest.

I moved to several other locations in Minnesota, and had a chance to work with an Amish community and the Mille Lacs band of the Ojibwe Indians. I was in the forefront of things when I worked in one of the nation’s first pilot projects under the brand new Conservation Security Program.”

Then Yamika was selected as one of thirty new employees to attend the agency’s first “Boot Camp” in West Virginia. Strangers came from all across the country to spend six weeks of intensive training together. “I built lifelong friendships with people who are now in positions all over the U.S.-- District Conservationists, Resource Conservationists, Soil Conservationists, Soil Scientists, and others. We keep in touch through e-mail and rely on each other for advice and support as we move into new jobs,” she says.

Yamika has since returned home as a District Conservationist in Virginia. She continues to look for new opportunities to learn and grow, and is now serving as Acting RC&D Coordinator for the 5-county South Hampton Roads RC&D area.

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