The week finally arrived when all my training finally went into play. The 11 high school YCC interns sprang into action and went about their various scheduled shifts at different places at the park such as Grand Canyon Visitor Center, Verkamps Visiter Center, Horse Patrol,...
First programs down, many more to go. The interpretive interns have officially started developing and presenting their educational programs to visitors. I’ll be done with my first try at all my topics by Sunday when I complete the guided hike to a place called Inspiration...
Popular culture often depicts the Southwest of the United States as barren wastelands which are incapable of producing any sort of life, yet in my four shorts days, I have captured nothing less than a fountain of diversity in the desert of Southern Arizona. Coronado...
Two weeks so far at SF Maritime and I’m still adjusting to it all. Not knowing too much about maritime history or having done much seafaring myself, has made absorbing it a bit overwhelming. But that’s in part why I am here, so I am...
Diversifying the audience to which the National Park Service caters has been a prevalent challenge. Raising awareness of these parks and their services to underrepresented groups is an ongoing conversation with many factors to consider. Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK), a non-profit organization focused on...
This week, training has consumed most of my time at work but I’d much rather discuss a cosmic coincidence I observed since my time here. I have been reminiscing about my younger self through the lens of a young girl we will call Ema....
This week has been devoted to interpretation training for the entire FIIS division for the new interns and staff, as well as the seasoned rangers and officers. We started off the week by gaining some new interns and a new seasonal ranger! The interns come...
These were the best two weeks of my life as I got to meet my new baby son John Carlos, born on an early Sunday morning in a downtown hospital just a few blocks away from the Alamo (no one will ever be able to...
Back at it again with the third blog post of the summer! If you haven’t already done so, please read up here and here on President Obama’s visit to Yosemite National Park, in which he expresses the importance of conservation and preservation as related to...
I’m on my 4th week of my internship at the C&O Canal at Great Falls and so far it has been great. All the rangers and seasonals here at the park have been more than welcoming (I even feel like a ranger myself)....
Walking down the aisle of the Moran Theater with a smile so wide it began to hurt, my eyes scoped the room, eventually locking frame where my supervisor and coworkers were. The moment I saw them at my high school graduation, I knew we would...
To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. - Ralph Waldo Emerson This week, I got to thinking about all the outdoor activities I've had the opportunity to...
"The national park is the best idea America ever had."- James Bryce The past two weeks have consisted of experiences I will remember for quite a long time. On Monday June 13th, I was given the opportunity to accompany NPS representatives that...
Perhaps because of its isolation within the national and state context, the Guadalupe Mountains National Park hasn’t relished the same fame that other national parks hold. In 2015, this park was ranked 48 in the list of the 58 most visited national parks,...
This fourth week has been complicated for me and for the team at San Juan National Historic Site. Because we’ve had to study some abandoned historical artifacts, we don’t know its “true” origin and its historical context. For this reason, my specialty is to disseminate...
When I first heard the name William Floyd, as a Long Island native my first thought is "Oh that parkway out by Mastic?". Unfortunately, this is a pretty common occurrence in my area, as no one ever seems to remember the man after which the...
This week during my internship at Colorado National Monument, I had the opportunity to learn and experience a whole new set of skills. Instead of surveying at White Rocks this week for historic and archaeological sites, I worked on historic walls that had been built...
This week's research demonstrated the development of a concept that quickly spread throughout education in America and Topeka. The movement to "Americanize" children and their families was an effort to cleanse immigrant communities of their non-American habits (although this affected other communities, for our purposes I...
Last Friday, the team and I went out to Loop Road Education Center where we met with Rick Anderson, a passionate South Floridian whose family has been here for many generations. Rick began his talk by asking all of the audience members to introduce themselves,...
It has been a wonderful first week here at the Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center at Channel Islands National Park. So far I have been on the mainland only. That will change next week when I go out to Anacapa Island for a whole 8 days...