05 Jul Late to the Party

Hi!

I’m Marissa, an intern based in the Georgetown section of the C&O Canal in Washington D.C. and am posting a biiiiiit later than I anticipated. I also recently got my bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of Maryland.

Born and raised in southern MD, I found my love for nature spending every minute I could by the Chesapeake Bay finding sharks teeth and chasing crabs. There was always a sense of caring for the world around us, but not always for everyone in it. That’s what first sparked my interest in interdisciplinary social and environmental subjects.

The first couple weeks of this internship went by as fast as the Potomac rising 10 ft. too high in the flood at Great Falls. It’s since calmed down a bit, with a few new faces met and a whole bunch of things to take in around me.

I’m still in the early stages of learning what the C&O Canal has meant to everyone who has used it and continues to use it. The ingenuity that impacted transportation and people’s livelihoods and the part the canal played in the underground railroad are two huge bits of history that are ready to be told here. The last LHIP intern here was digging for the more forgotten parts of latinx history that may be underneath the more widespread knowledge of the canal. Maybe I’ll find some of it too. Stay tuned!