Katja Kubasta logged 586 roadside surveys for Eastern Fox Snakes

Katja Kubasta, a Faculty of Environment student, completed 586 roadside surveys over four months in Norfolk County. She documented wildlife and pointed to places where new infrastructure could do more to protect species at risk.

The placement was with the Long Point Biosphere Region through a KEEN Global Citizen Internship, supervised by Chantel Markle of Waterloo and road ecologist Kari Gunson. The roads and habitat she monitored are used by endangered Eastern Fox Snakes, and the area holds Ontario’s largest Carolinian population of the species. Its president, Brian Craig, said the organization could not have done the research and monitoring without KEEN’s support.

KEEN Footwear has backed Waterloo students through graduate scholarships, internships and co-op opportunities, and it agreed to extend its partnership with the faculty by five more years. Its support has also reached the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the rare Charitable Research Reserve, where it supported learning and work on more than 1,200 acres of protected land.

KEEN received a 2026 Friend of the Faculty Impact Award for sustained investment in student learning.