Conservation Diaries: Josefina Polhammer Aliaga, International Volunteer

Conservation Diaries Podcast Series

Conservation Diaries is a podcast series from the voice of the youth of the National Park Service as they share their passion and commitment to conservation of America's natural and cultural treasures. Listen as interns, volunteers, fellows, or employees across the National Park Service share their perspectives on conservation and why it is important for youth to be involved in the stewardship of their public lands. Josefina Polhammer Aliaga was interviewed in 2022. Listen to the entire Conservation Diaries podcast series. 

• Conservation Diaries: Josefina Polhammer Aliaga, International Volunteer

  
  

  Listen to this episode of Conservation Diaries as Josefina Polhammer Aliaga shares her experience as an international volunteer at Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.
  Audio Transcript

  [intro music]

  Lucy: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Conservation Diaries, a National Park Service podcast. I am your host, Lucy Hurlbut. And in these episodes, we are featuring youth from around the world volunteering in national parks through the National Park Service’s International Volunteers In Parks Program.

  Sometimes called "IVIP” for short, this program brings many talented people from different cultural, educational, and professional backgrounds to gain experience to work in conservation-related fields in National Park Service sites and programs. Our agency also has the opportunity to learn from their knowledge and perspective. While this podcast series focuses on youth, the International Volunteers In Parks Program is open to all ages.

  Our guest today is Josefina Polhammer Aliaga, a graduate from the University of Chile. Her studies and interest in US cultural and Indigenous history brought her to the National Park Services in search of her next career journey.

  Josefina: I thought, well, volunteering in one of these parks, any park in the US, they are actually very beautiful, so it would be fun. In the beginning, the main thing for me was being able to work with nature, because I love the outdoors. But when I got to the program and when I actually started doing the job, I discovered that I was going to get much more from this experience than I was expecting to. I learned so much.

  Lucy: Josefina spent four months volunteering at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, often called C&O Canal for short. Today it is one of the most popular national parks in the country providing a wide variety of recreational opportunities including hiking, biking, fishing, and camping. She arrived from Chile just as the busy summer season was beginning and was all too happy to jump in and learn on the job. She worked in the Great Falls section of the C&O in various roles from mule care volunteer, to boat volunteer, to Billy Goat Trail steward.

  Built during the heyday of the canal era, the C&O Canal was used for almost 100 years by mule-drawn canal boats to transport coal and other cargo to the ports of Georgetown and Washington, DC. In the 1950s there was a movement to pave over the C&O Canal and turn it into a parkway. Among those in opposition was US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.

  Josefina: Justice William O. Douglas, he said, "Okay, we can't let this happen." He wrote to one of the newspapers from that time that was doing news about this highway, and he asked the editors to go on a hike with him along the canal that it lasted about eight days, I think. Yeah. It was a long hike, to show them how amazing this was as a park, as a place to enjoy nature, more than as a highway. So they did the hike, and it worked. The editors from different newspapers published articles about how this was a place that we had to protect.

  Lucy: Josefina’s joy and passion for her duties was infectious. When asked about the mules, she lit up and bubbled over with love for working with Eva, Dolly, Jen, and Julie. Her attention to the detail in their care, from grooming and feeding to picking pasture and keeping the flies off them, was evident in how the mules responded to her. Eva would follow Josefina every day as she left the paddock to get some extra love. By the conclusion of her time here, she was training and mentoring staff in how to best care for our mules.

  She was able to give her coworkers and visitors great advice on trails and could give vivid descriptions to help inform visitors on recreating decisions.

  Josefina: So one of the things... Oh, it depends on the weather. Usually, a lot of people like to do hiking. We have the most difficult trail in the whole park was in the section I was working at in Great Falls. It was called Billy Goat A. It was a two, three hours trail and you had to do rock climbing, and usually when it was too hot, we would tell the visitors, try to avoid that trail, try to do some other trails. We had some like that would go into a forest, not as tiring, not as exposed to the sun. But yeah, that was one of the most popular things people would do.

  Lucy: Some of the notable accomplishments Josefina can claim during her brief time at the C & O Canal were hosting a discussion on the difference between American and Chilean national parks as part of the park’s monthly VIP Speaker Series, engaging new park audiences by developing a guided interpretive walk in Spanish, designing and publishing our next generation of Mule Trading Cards, supporting the park’s partner organizations by taking a leadership role during Latino Conservation Week events as well as multiple days of service focused on trash pick-up or invasive species removal, helping to identify and provide initial treatment for colic (a potentially deadly condition) in Dolly while calling for more experienced assistance, and obtaining an Certified Interpretive Guide certificate from the National Association for Interpretation. It’s no wonder that the park voted her its volunteer of the year.

  Josefina: It was very, very tiring, but super fun. After that, I learned some other positions in the boat, but the other one that I did the most was doing the ranger talk that we would do on board with the visitors. That was super challenging for me. I usually don't enjoy speaking in public and it's worse if I do it in English, but it was good to try it and see that I was capable of doing that.

  Lucy: Josefina’s experiences volunteering in the US led her to consider how one’s cultural background can be an asset when connecting with visitors.

  Josefina: Yeah, I think in any environment, having diversity, it's super important. You get different point of view and you get to connect with people that have different backgrounds and different life experiences. So yeah, it's really great.

  I think that was very helpful in the way that I could engage and connect with visitors that came from Latin America or had some background or they spoke Spanish. It was much easier to connect with them. I noticed that when I was talking to someone and they discovered that I was from Chile and that I could speak Spanish, they would be much more open. They would ask much more questions.

  Lucy: International volunteers have a unique awareness of the National Park Service. Many countries do not have a similar organization that provides cohesive management and policies for their public lands. They sometimes also have fewer resources and less staff. Providing opportunities for young people from other countries to work in the US parks is something that is extremely valuable to gain different experiences for the stewardship of public lands.

  Josefina: I think volunteering in any park, in any national park in the US, I think it's a unique experience. Of course, it won't be exactly the same as mine, but I can only imagine it would be amazing. You don't only get to work with what I think it's one of the most well-organized park systems in the world, which is the National Park Service. You also get to work with very professional people, very committed coworkers, and you get to see amazing places, amazing landscapes. You get to learn a lot from your coworkers. And I would also like to add that you can also meet some amazing people and make some great friends, which is something that makes the experience much, much better.

  Lucy: Josefina credited her international volunteer program with helping her discover the next steps in her career. She discovered what interpretation was and became aware that it could be a profession. As a result, Josefina has decided to pursue a job in a Chilean national park, museum or historical park, and perhaps undertaking a master’s degree in public history in the future. Connecting the US national parks with individuals from other countries makes parks more dynamic. International volunteers bring unique cultural perspectives to them, and in turn, have experiences that have an impact on their own lives and potentially an impact on conservation in their own countries.

  The National Park Service’s International Affairs Office coordinates programs like the International Volunteer in Park Program that helps the national parks share its mission with countries around the globe. For more information about the program, you can visit nps.gov slash international cooperation:

  And remember, there are many opportunities for youth and young adults 15 to 30 years old and veterans 35 years old and younger to work with the National Park Service.

  To learn more about these jobs, internships, and volunteering opportunities, you can go to nps.gov slash youth programs.

  Thanks for listening and happy trails!

  [music fades]

Josefina was voted by her park as "volunteer of the year".

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Meet Josefina Pohlhammer Aliaga, an international volunteer born and raised in Santiago, Chile. After graduating with a degree in history at the University of Chile, her love of nature, animals, and cultural history led to her to volunteer at the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park where she could share her love of these things with others.

The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park, often called the C&O Canal, tells the story of transportation from the early days of the US as the young country was developing and expanding westward. Situated along the Potomac River, the park begins in Washington, DC, and continues 184.5 miles into Maryland and West Virginia traversing forests, farmland, rocky cliffs, and small towns along the way. The historic canal and towpath and its surrounding parkland offer opportunities for walking, biking, camping, wildlife watching, and learning about history.

Josefina with park staff on the canal boat Charles F. Mercer

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“In the beginning, the main thing for me was being able to work with nature because I love the outdoors. But when I got to the program and when I actually started doing the job, I discovered that I was going to get much more from this experience than I was expecting to. I learned so much. I made really good friends. I don’t know, I was just going for the nature and then I discovered so much more.” - Josefina Polhammer Aliaga

Josefina volunteered 740 hours and was nominated as the park’s Volunteer of the Year. As the busy summer season began Josefina expanded her knowledge and new responsibilities in various roles including mule Care Volunteer, Boat Volunteer, and Billy Goat Trail Steward. She never shied away from hard work and long days.

One of the perks of volunteering was making friends with the park's mules.

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Mules played a vital role in the construction and operation of the C&O Canal in the 1800’s and are still used at the park today. They are the ‘engines’ that power the canal boats through the canal locks. As a Mule Care Volunteer, Josefina’s enjoyed working with Eva who would follow Josefina every day to get some extra love. By the end of her volunteer program, Josefina was an expert at caring for the mules and began training and mentoring staff on how to care for them.

“One of the things about my culture that helped me a lot was that I was able to speak Spanish. When they discovered that I was from Chile and speak Spanish, they would be more open and ask much more questions. I think that getting to connect with people that had my same background was super helpful.” - Josefina Polhammer Aliaga

While working as a Boat Volunteer, Josefina challenged herself and learned how to be an educational interpreter. Public speaking was difficult for her, but she rose to the challenge giving presentations to audiences of 50 people is in her non-native language of English. She is a natural interpreter and presented programs that was engaging and memorable. From this experience, Josefina found a new passion and a future career to pursue in interpretation, a field that she knew nothing about before arriving at the C&O Canal.

“I think volunteering in any park, in any national park in the US, I think it's a unique experience. Of course, it won't be exactly the same as mine, but I can only imagine it would be amazing.” - Josefina Polhammer Aliaga

Become a Volunteer

You can make our great places even better. Learn more about opportunities for international volunteers in US national parks. Some positions are specialized and require specific knowledge or skills, while some positions only require a willingness to learn and make a difference. Anyone interested in volunteering with the National Park Service can find a list of available opportunities at Volunteer.gov or learn more about our Volunteers-In-Parks program. 

Lucy Hurlbut at New River Gorge National Park & Preserve

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Meet the Host

Lucy Hurlbut is the Outreach and Digital Communications Specialist for the Youth Programs Division of the National Park Service. She helps communicate to partners and the public the various ways youth and young adults are engaging in our national parks related to outdoor recreation, education, volunteer service, and employment opportunities. These include highlighting the great work interns, fellows, service corps members, and volunteers accomplish during their time with the National Park Service and celebrating their growth throughout their journey. The National Park Service has many partnerships with youth-serving organizations, which include the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps, Youth Conservation Corps, as well as the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, and Boy Scouts of America. Learn more about different youth and young adult program opportunities to get involved on our "Work With Us" page.

"I love this podcast series because the episodes are created by youth for other youth, as well as for their friends, families, and colleagues. I get inspired hearing their stories related to conservation, because we all come from different walks of life. What brings us together is not only our shared experiences but also our unique experiences that make us who we are." - Lucy Hurlbut

Linda Bennett with a representative from a national park in Kenya

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Meet the International Volunteers in Parks Coordinator

Linda Bennett is an International Cooperation Specialist with the National Park Service's Office of International Affairs. She serves as the International Volunteer in Parks (IVIP) Coordinator, as well as the main contact for the National Park Service's international cooperation efforts with countries in Europe. Her 30-year career with the National Park Service has included being an interpretive ranger and volunteer coordinator at National Mall and Memorial Parks, assignments in Canyonlands National Park and Natural Bridges National Monument, and graduating the Mid-Level Intake program. She finds working with international volunteers rewarding with the knowledge that their experiences working in the US national parks will have a lasting impact upon their careers and lives.