Event Recap - Empowering Our Future Conservation and Climate Stewards

Screenshot from left to right: ASL interpreter Kelly, Nichole McHenry (Moderator - NPS), Sara Doty (SCA and GulfCorps), Jenna Miladin (Great Basin Institute), Wooju Chong (Environment for the Americas), Olivia Hall (Montana Conservation Corps), Mason Bunker (Stewards Individual Placements)

NPS Photo

The National Park Service Youth and Young Adult Programs Division co-hosted the virtual event “Then/Now/Tomorrow: Empowering Our Future Conservation and Climate Stewards” on April 24, 2024, for National Park Week, alongside The Corps Network, the National Park Foundation, and AmeriCorps. A panel of six current and former corps members shared their experiences working and serving on public lands.

The event was held in Zoom with more than 200 people joining and was also streamed to the National Park Service Youth and Young Adult Programs Facebook page, which currently has 11.3K views.

Event moderator Nichole McHenry, the Relevancy, Diversity, and Inclusion Program Manager for the Midwest Region of the National Park Service, noted that the National Park Service “has a long history of collaborating with service and conservation and other youth-serving organizations to engage teens, youth, and young adults in service projects and education in parks.” She also mentioned the recent launch of the American Climate Corps.

Tracey Ritchie, Vice President of Education and Engagement for the National Park Foundation noted that, “Service corps members are contributing in such meaningful ways to our national parks, including the Maintenance Action Teams and advancing projects funded by the Great American Outdoors Act.” She is excited to see younger generations be inspired by outdoor careers and stewardship.

Yasmeen Shaheen-McConnell, the Senior Advisor for Strategic Partnerships at AmeriCorps, pointed out that AmeriCorps has “30 years of experience, and in the last year alone, [it had] nearly 15,000 members who served in climate conservation and environmental stewardship positions.”

Jamie Crispin, the Youth Program Manager for the Youth and Young Adult Programs Division explained that "[this] office connects over 5,700 youth and young adults [each year] to paid internships across our national park sites.” They help young individuals develop leadership and hands-on skills that will help them in future conservation and stewardship careers.

For the panel discussion, McHenry welcomed the six current and former Corps members who are already paving a way for the next generation of stewards with the amazing work they have accomplished and will continue to do: Sara Doty, a Corpsmember with the Student Conservation Association and GulfCorps; Jenna Miladin, a PhD Student with the Great Basin Institute (2024 Corpsmember of the Year); Sara Vélez Galíndez, Field Coordinator for BoriCorps (2024 Corpsmember of the Year); Wooju Chong, Birdability Intern with Environment for the Americas; Olivia Hall, Corpsmember from the Piikuni Lands Crew, a partnership between Montana Conservation Corps and the Blackfeet Nation; and Mason Bunker, Strategic Planning Coordinator at the National Parks of Boston Climate Conservation Corps through Conservation Legacy's Stewards Individual Placement Program.

Doty previously participated in an internship at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge where she learned about the world of conservation. This led her to join the Student Conservation Association as a GulfCorps Conservation Crew member based in Texas, where she worked on longleaf pine restoration efforts at Big Thicket National Preserve. She loves to travel and getting involved with service and conservation gave her that opportunity. “I decided to get involved with the corps world because I wanted to work amongst nature right outside of college, make a difference on the land that I could see, and travel around. And this really fit all of it,” she said. She has been traveling South Texas, where she continues to do work doing basil bark spraying and cut stumping of trees.

Miladin joined the Corps world with the Great Basin Institute through AmeriCorps, where she served at Capital Reef National Park in Utah as a botany technician. She monitored federally listed species and contributed to large-scale restoration projects. At that time, she discovered a nested wasp complex that was eating fruit flies, which were then eating some of the park’s flowers. This fueled her passion for biology research and has helped her work on research she is currently doing in her PhD at the University of Arkansas. “Whether you're a scientist and you're publishing your research, or you are a communication specialist for a corps and you're connecting with another corps working on similar projects, I think it's just really important and would create a powerful network that allows for other climate stewards and the public to know all of the great work that's being done.”

Vélez is currently the BoriCorps Field Coordinator but previously started as a crew member from 2021 to 2023 at San Juan National Historic Site. She worked on turf restoration and trail maintenance with BoriCorps/AmeriCorps. With her team’s help, she successfully created a water channel for a trail to redirect the water flow that was previously ruining a structure. She described her crew member position as a time of growth and shared, “Now I'm able to communicate effectively and with a lot of people. I couldn’t do that before. I have expanded my knowledge in project management, and I've gained a lot of skills which I use on a day-to-day basis.”

Chong is a graduate student at Stanford University and a Birdability intern working on-site at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area through Environment for the Americas. Through this role, she is an advocate for increasing public knowledge about disabilities, as well as creating more accessibility and opportunities for those with disabilities. She expressed the importance of creating inclusivity and diversity in birding for people with health concerns and expressed, “We hope to encourage individuals to become advocates for environmental protection and conservation.” She worked on a campaign for World Migratory Bird Day, which advocates for the awareness and conservation of migratory birds’ habitats.

The need to be a part of something bigger was something on Hall’s heart long before she began her position with the Piikuni Lands crew. She grew up on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana, and spent most of her time outside near the borders of Glacier National Park. She began her position with the Montana Conservation Corps to fuel her passion for environmental science and had the ability to work in trail restoration. She believes the work youth are doing on our public lands is critical for growth and development. “I think this is so important for our young Indigenous youth to explore and work on integrating traditional ecological knowledge, personal development, and meaningful project work based on our ancestral lands on the reservation,” she said.

Bunker began his conservation journey at Bates College where he majored in Environmental Studies. Before interning with the National Park Service, he worked with the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, where he did conservation, interpretation, volunteer engagement, and geographic information systems (GIS) mapping. Now he is an AmeriCorps VISTA and Strategic Planning Coordinator for the National Parks of Boston Climate Conservation Corps, a new Conservation Legacy Stewards Individual Placements Program. Bunker believes that change is dependent on the individual and collective at hand. “There are actions that we can each do, and if each and every one of us does it, that can add up to a lot of change,” he voiced.

At the start of the Q&A session, McHenry invited three additional individuals to join the conversation: Nicole Mason, Service-wide MAT Coordinator for the National Park Service; George McDonald, the Senior Advisor for Youth Programs at the; and Sandy Scott, Senior Advisor in the Office of Strategic Partnerships at AmeriCorps.The session began with questions about how to get involved with the National Park Service without any previous background in anything relating to conservation or stewardship work. McDonald shared that “entry-level positions are the perfect way to get started” with the National Park Service. He talked about the wide range of places you can get involved within the Department of Interior, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, and so much more. He also added that the perfect way to get your foot in the door is by starting with service corps opportunities like individual placements, stewardships, and fellowships. There is always a need for people in every type of role whether you have a background in environmental science, communications, or another field.

Another question asked about services for community engagement, mental health, and diversity for youth currently serving. Scott explained that "several of the AmeriCorps programs relate to environmental stewardship, conservation, clean energy, disaster response, solar installation, urban farms, and gardens,” so they are not tied to a particular land base. He also explained that there is a whole other set of programs that are focused on education and mental health. Mary Ellen Sprenkle added that there are many corps programs specifically for young people who need assistance in finishing high school, who may be in the juvenile system, or exiting the foster care system. “No matter where you are, where you're coming from, your skill level, your interest level, there is a corps for you, a corps experience for you and very likely operating in your own community,” she noted.

The work that the corps are doing is important for resources, but it is also real work that will help youth gain valuable skills for the workforce. Nicole Mason shared her thoughts encouraging the audience to find something they love doing and “…take the opportunity to imagine where you want to be and to have new experiences, make connections, and network.”

With the wrap-up of the event, each participant shared a final thought with the audience as an encouraging farewell. Hall offered “Honor and support conservation efforts. We not only protect the environment and preserve cultural heritage, but we also nurture a more sustainable and harmonious relationship with the world around us.” Crispin encouraged the audience to step out of their comfort zones to make a difference and “to find a personal connection to one of our national parks, to nature, or just to history and see where that takes you.”

Conservation and stewardship will always be a continuous effort, but you can make a real change serving in a corps program. Miladin left the audience with this final note: “I think sometimes when discussing climate change or conservation, people can ask… what are we really doing? Are we making a difference? ...There are a lot of brilliant and dedicated people that are doing great work and they're making a difference and you can be a part of that too.”

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