Karinne Tennenbaum is currently a junior enrolled at Pioneer.

“My fascination and love for birds began at a young age, probably once I realized that humans can’t fly. In second grade, I participated in Science Olympiad’s Feathered Friends, and I was really hooked. But my years as an avid birder began during my freshmen year of high school. I joined the Washtenaw Audubon Society, which is the local birding chapter in Ann Arbor, and I started attending monthly programs in addition to learning to identify bird species. Now, I’m a member of the Michigan Young Birders Network and the Ohio Young Birders Network, so I’m striving to make birding a popular term at the state level and promoting it specifically among the youth. Last year, as a sophomore, I founded the Ornithological Society of Pioneer (OSP), and the club is growing during the virtual school year. Now, we have about 18 members across all of the four major high schools, and we meet virtually biweekly to discuss bird related news, to talk about the bird sightings we’ve seen around town, and gather for Wednesday morning walks that are socially distanced and masked at local birding spots in Ann Arbor… I think birding can take on a lot of aspects to what you’re passionate about… like as a podcaster or just a hardcore studier like I am of the actual species, but some people build bird houses, some people sketch, some people just watch videos, or they make puns and jokes that we try to put on the page. It’s diverse and the community is filled with wonderful people. They’re all super nice, and it’s something different that I don’t feel is covered a lot of times. You probably won’t hear it. There’s a lot of stigma around it that it’s not a real activity that people do, and I want to be that person that tells you it’s not: it’s for everyone.”