Staff Spotlight: Elizabeth LaRochelle

Profile Photo of Elizabeth LaRochelle with Alex Ambassador visiting Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Seattle WA.

Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth LaRochelle

Taking risks can be scary. Having the courage to say “yes” to something you are unsure of can be a powerful moment. For Elizabeth LaRochelle, her pathway to the National Park Service (NPS) was not linear. As she reflects on what led her to the NPS, what comes to mind is her early childhood memories spending time with her mom, exploring historical, cultural and natural sites in her home state of Maine and beyond.

“My mom heavily valued education in the many forms it can take, both in a classroom and in the “real” world. Together we would visit museums, living history centers, cultural fairs, and natural landmarks, all of which I adored.”

She visited national parks like Grand Canyon National Park and many state parks in Maine. What she gravitated to the most while visiting these sites were the stories that were visible on the surface and the desire to uncover those that were buried. Her love of stories led her to participate in a 5-year program at St. John’s University where she earned both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in History with a concentration in Public History. During her course of study, she became fascinated by 19th and 20th century America and the history of public sanitation and our trash, as it mixes social, ecological, cultural and medical history, allowing you to uncover many different stories and perspectives. She did her senior thesis on the sanitation of New York City, titled; New YUCK City: Refuse, Carcasses, and Shit, the Story of New York City Streets.

During her sophomore year at St. John’s University (SJU), she learned about an accredited volunteer-in-parks internship that was a partnership between SJU and the NPS at Ellis Island (part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument) and with the Amtrak Trails&Rails program. While these opportunities piqued her interest, she was concerned about her ability to manage the workload and did not know if she could really do an internship while still maintaining her high GPA and working part time. By her junior year, she had had a few friends who completed the internship over the summer, and while they loved their experience, it still did not feel right for her to do the internship. During her junior year, as part of her 5-year program at SJU, she began taking Graduate level courses, along with her undergraduate courses. With this change in workload, she was still hesitant to take on an internship. And then, it was during the Fall semester of her junior year when her life dramatically changed.

“My dad, who was a civil engineer, was diagnosed with an aggressive terminal illness, bulbar onset ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) in October 2017, my mom paused working her two jobs to become his sole caretaker, and then very unexpectedly in January 2018, she died. Three months later, in April 2018 my dad then died, and my older siblings and I had to close up and sell our childhood home in Maine. I returned to my senior year of college at SJU very unsure of my future and very unsure of where I was even going to physically be when I graduated, as I had always just assumed I would return home upon graduation. The experiences I had gone through forced me to mature.”

During the summer after her parents passing, she worked as an intern at the Maine Historical Society, leading tours of the boyhood home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It felt cathartic to be able to help preserve a historical figure’s home, while simultaneously processing the lives of her parents and the selling of her own childhood home. Having been able to successfully balance working full time and having an internship, she then returned to SJU for her Senior year and interned with StoryCorps. Finally, after testing the internship waters, she took a chance, sent in her application, had her first ever phone interview, and was accepted into the program in the summer of 2019.

Wherever she went, her deep connection to the stories of the people and places she discovered motivated her to be curious and ask questions. What she loved most about her experience working at Ellis Island was getting to meet all the visitors, hearing their stories, and learning about the history of immigration, what it meant to immigrate, and what home meant. She would light up each day and kept wanting to come back each day to see all those faces and be in a place history took place. When her internship officially concluded she asked to continue coming in as a volunteer, as she was enjoying her time at Ellis so much.

Her experience at Ellis Island opened her eyes to what her future could hold at a time when everything else she was seeing seemed so bleak. The world was facing a pandemic, but she persevered and continued to apply to seasonal positions. She became a seasonal park ranger at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site Site during the summer of 2020, where she created interpretive videos for visitors, such as this one about the Roosevlet family pet cemetery. She then served as the Community Volunteer Ambassador for the National Parks of New York Harbor for two years.

Elizabeth giving a thumbs up at the office

Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth LaRochelle

As a CVA, she enjoyed working on a multitude of projects including; presenting a session at the 2021 NAI national conference about Accredited VIP Internships, assisted with running the internship program she had once participated in at SJU, helping the Lower East Side Tenement Musuem with their entire collections packing ahead of a major restoration project, and she organized and led the NPS–Amtrak Trails&Rails Partnership Conference, which took place at the U.S. Department of the Interior building in Washington, DC. There, she met former NPS director, Bob Stanton, and the current NPS Director Chuck Sams, which was certainly a highlight. Even though this was her first time organizing an event of that scale, she was not worried about failing because she knew her team was there to support her and be there for her personally and professionally.

One fun project she created with two other CVA’s was called the “Flat CVA: Alex Ambassador Activity.” which was a way to help build a sense of community in the CVA program, where people are scattered all across the country. This was a cartoon paper cutout of ‘Alex Ambassador’ the flat CVA, that would travel to different park locations where CVA’s were serving in every region. CVAs would receive the paper cutout, spend a week letting ‘Alex Ambassador’ shadow them at work, and the take a picture and write about their adventure together before sending their companion to their next destination. While the first year of her CVA term felt lonely due to working remotely and not getting to meet many people, it got better in her second year when she was able to interact with more people in-person again.

Since May, she has been serving in a new permanent position at the National Parks of New York Harbor as their Youth Programs Coordinator. “It was a path full of twists and turns, dark forests, and happy meadows, but I’m proud to have gotten to this point on my journey,” she shared.

Up next for her is getting to visit the Yellowstone National Park’s Youth Conservation Corps crew in July. They will work with the Stephen T. Mather School Building Arts and Craftsmanship High School, and a Student Conservation Association crew to help rebuild the Museum of the American Ranger. She will also get to visit Grand Teton National Park to meet the Historic Preservation Training Center.

Having a work life balance is crucial, so when she’s not at work, she likes to read, expose herself to different cultures, and take pleasure in eating the many different kinds of foods New York City has to offer.

On how to get more youth and young adults involved with the NPS, Floyd Myers, the Chief of Business Management at the National Parks of New York Harbor, explains how Elizabeth is an example of the patience and tenacity it can take. “For interns, CVAs, or people that want to come into the NPS, you just have to be go through the hurdles…and don’t quit. There’s always a way to get [them] in,” he said. Volunteering is one of those ways, and she is forever grateful for having the opportunity to dip her toes into the experience before deciding the NPS was her home away from her. Just as others believed in her, she is now helping others get into the NPS by helping with building resumes and providing interviewing tips.

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