08 Sep A Journey to Lake Haiyaha & Accomplishments

I just finished week two of my internship and I am loving every second of it! Not only do I work with some amazing people, but I am also living in an absolutely beautiful national park! My first week here included visiting various spots around the park to get familiar with the ecosystems here at Rocky Mountain National Park. There are so many unique spots to see here with the sudden elevation gains. During the field times I explored the Montane, Sub-Alpine, Alpine Tundra, and Riparian Ecosystems; all very unique in nature. I was so moved from the tour that I quickly planned another trip to Lake Haiyaha. This was only a 4.2-mile round trip and when I got there I did not want to leave. The lake and overall location was breathe taking! I made sure to pack my lunch and brought a book and ended up staying there for about three hours.

Other than that, my first week was pretty intense! I went through a whole week of training to learn the logistics behind running the environmental education program as well as standard operation procedures for the distance learning lab. The week also included going through job hazard analysis paperwork to mitigate personal injuries when in the field and finally getting CPR/First Aid certified. My first week ended with a long planning meeting where we all discussed our goals for the first month. The whole team is required to learn the four-preexisting distance learning programs and take in one more and make it their own. With a total of five the deadline was set for October 1^st. This was all done in an online format calendar where we update each week and share it with the whole team.

My second week started off great as well with an end goal set in mind. The goal for the week was to successfully be able to deliver the preexisting distance learning program about the ecosystems of Rocky. This began with having some visual help and viewing live zoom presentations of the program. This was extremely beneficial because it gave me delivering details which I may have not even thought of. After the visual help I read the outline of the program and how it correlated with Colorado’s State Standards. With all this information set, the next step was to create a personal outline to help me with my individual learning style. Then after the material was learned I went through a peer review session with staff and presented it to them where they gave back constructive feedback. The first try was not great by any means I knew I wanted to do better and that is exactly what I did! The nest day during the supervisory check off I did a hundred times better! I flowed with the programs and did not rely on my outline once. I was extremely proud of myself and know there is still room for improvement. I am excited to see what my third week has in store and can’t wait to share it with you all!