Laura Altin comes from the small Estonian town of Kilingi-Nõmme. If you had attended the GLOBE Annual Conference in Calgary last month, you would have seen her on screen, when students from a GLOBE summer camp in Estonia addressed the Conference live and direct from Estonia, staying up late at night to bring their youthful energy into the conference hall. Laura was there to supervise CloudSat training, as she has done for the past 3 summers. She is an Alumni leader in Estonia and a Regional Representative on the GLOBE Alumni International Advisory Committee.
Laura was first introduced to GLOBE as a shy 8-year-old, when her mother took her along to the first GLOBE teacher training in Estonia. The year was 1996, Estonia had just joined GLOBE, and teachers were beginning to implement GLOBE in classrooms there. Since then, Laura has become an active participant in the GLOBE Program and has completed training in almost all GLOBE measurements. Beginning with atmosphere measurements, she advanced to data collection and field activities in biometry, hydrology, phenology and soils.For the past 12 years, Laura has participated GLOBE Estonia summer camps, including 3 years as CloudSat supervisor. She had also participated in the 2003 GLE in Croatia, where she presented a research project on field investigations of a nature trail around her schoolhouse, her first foray into GLOBE research in her community.
This year Laura completed her undergraduate training in geography at the University Tartu and has begun her Masters studies there. "I will do my best to stay connected with GLOBE forever," writes Laura. "GLOBE is a lifestyle. I believe that if person is really a GLOBE person, then GLOBE will always be part of one's life. It helps to broaden minds and to get new skills and knowledge... and, of course... to find new friends."