20 Jun Let the Fun Begin!

This week the YCC Vegetation crew and the SOAR crew split. We also sent our SOAR crew out on their own for most of the week. The interns who are involved in maintenance, the auto shop, the signs shop, and wildlife got to go meet with their groups for the whole week. As for our interpretation interns, they had two more days of training on Monday and Tuesday before we sent them to their different locations. We tried to make the intern schedules mimic the interpreters’ schedules, so that they could meet with them before and after a program and get a feeling for what a ranger’s day usually feels like. For example, if an intern was scheduled for a Geo Glimpse that day then they would get some time at the Visitor Center, arrive to the Geo Glimpse early, listen to the program, help with any Junior Ranger tasks, then help out at the Visitor Center again afterwards. Since we didn’t have to follow the interns everywhere, it was a really great time for us to catch up on any projects or emails. We did go visit some of them while they were out and about, and they were doing a great job at helping out and arriving to their places on time. On Fridays we have our Education Days, which allow both groups to meet up and have a fun day together. This week the subject was a little dry, since our education day revolved around Operational Leadership and a training on First Amendment rights and the Hatch Act. Operational Leadership teaches us how to evaluate certain scenarios and take precautions to prevent injuries or even death. They provided us the tools for how to communicate with our supervisors or coworkers to effective analyze a potentially dangerous situation. For the Hatch Act ,we informed our interns to be mindful of what they say and to remember that they are a representative of the government. Overall not the most exciting day, but a super duper informative one nevertheless. Well that’s all for this week!