My name is Alex Apelis. I was born in New York, New York, and spent most of my life living on the East Coast. I grew up playing ice hockey and attending summer camps in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. I came from one of the world’s busiest cities and saw many interesting things, but it is in my youth traveling every summer to camp that I developed a respect and admiration for wildlife and the environment. I would marvel at the many trees and mountains that the big apple and the surrounding suburbs didn’t offer and the many special and very important wildlife they contain. I enjoy camping, hiking (I went on a hike before writing this), fishing, and exploring our natural areas, and observing nature. I feel drawn to it. I served in the United States Marine Corps as an Ammunition Technician and gained much life experience. I am an only child to Polish/Latvian parents.
I decided to become a Mount Adams Institute Intern so that I could learn valuable practical skills in the environmental field while also making a difference in making our natural areas better for wildlife and people. I want to continue to serve in the conservation/restoration field and feel that my background and life experiences will surely be a great fit. My childhood goal, besides becoming a professional hockey player, had been to live in Alaska and be surrounded by not high-rise buildings and millions of cars and people but mountains and natural scenery and its many wildlife.
