05 Jul Bright Angel PSAR Hike

The 11 YCC Interp interns are broken into special focus areas: Horse Patrol, PSAR (Preventative Search and Rescue), Drama, Videography, and Social Media. Since it has been the beginning of the internship for the kids too, we have been taking everything very slow, doing many different shifts, attending many programs, and roving around the park. Even though these 11 interns grew up at Grand Canyon and attend/graduated from Grand Canyon High School, they still don’t know everything about the park and its environment. Grand Canyon offers a variety of programs relating to human history, geology, fossils, local flora and fauna, and family-friend hikes.

Because of all of this, my main priorities as the summer program assistant is to ensure that all these young adults are following their schedule, are enjoying and understanding their shifts, and preparing them for the programs that they will present to the public during week 7-8. I usually observe 3-5 of the YCC interns and their various shifts per day. When I am there, I will see if they are engaging with the visitors, remaining professional, and see if they fully understand what their duties entail. Being a supervisor takes a lot of work, but it is needed to observe and ask all the questions to better serve the schedules, make modifications, and improve the overall program. These past weeks have been non-stop observing and assisting their shifts, but trainings will always continue. On the last day of our four day week, we all had CPR training. It is great to get out of the office and out of the sun and break away from the routine. CPR training is very important because of the massive amounts of visitors that come to the Grand Canyon, where nearly 40% are international tourists! I am content with the direction that the YCC internship is going, especially because within a week, the program will be handed off to Ranger Jocelyn Imani (a critical hire from D.C.) and myself as the Youth Coordinator and overall supervisor of the program, Amala Posey, is be taking time off for her wedding! Congratulations to Amala and Bentley, I know they are excited and I am excited to be given the torch and become and be given more responsibility.