Career Exploration

August 02, 2013 Posted by: Evana Williams

Already half way through my summer and I am having a great time here at the Marsh- Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. For the last week I have been doing a lot of training and career searching. I have never thought about ever working in the National Park Service in the future. I always since I was little thought about becoming a teacher especially since my mother was a teacher. I have always had a passion for education and how we can teach the fundamentals of life. Being here at the park I met a woman name Joan. She runs educational programs for schools to get involved with the parks and make a connection from what kids are learning in the class to outside in the real world. I think what she does is amazing. I think it's a smart idea to teach kids more about outside and connect the two.

I always had a passion for the sciences and being here at the park has made me even more interested into connecting nature and education. Seeing what Joan does has gotten me to think about my future and what I can do to make my dreams come true. I never thought that national parks would have anything to do with my future becoming a teacher, but it has. I am thankful to be here this summer because when I do get go home and start my journey to further my goals of connecting parks service as well as education; maybe I could be a teacher or maybe I could be a ranger doing educational programs. 

Besides career searching we also did a lot of cool things.  I got to join an educational program with two rangers. They had a camp come in and they taught them about owl pellets. That was a cool and interesting. I do remember when I was little doing something like this in a science class, but to get to help little kids and teach them about owls was fun. I got a firsthand experience of getting closer to wanting to be an educator. In this activity we were looking for the bones of the animal that the owl had eaten.

We also got to see a tour of the Belvedere. During the time around where America was a target for Nuclear bombing the Rockefeller's had this housing area built for them and 48 other people. It was very small and cold. It didn't look like most bomb shelters.

Some other things we got to do were we got the chance to listen to a man name Mike Scott. He is a forester. He talked to us about the whole process of cutting down certain trees or if someone is trying to make money what type of tree they should grow. His job entitles a lot. He broke it down to us about what is forestry and how important it is. I am glad I got to hear about what forestry is because I didn't know how the park has to think about trees to cut or keep and so on. There is a method to why the park does what it does and I am happy to be able to learn about it.

We also got to go see the King Farm. This farm was owned many times and the type of farm was changed many times as well. The last owners were the King Sisters. The Vermont Land Trust now owns the farm. The farm is in a style of the late 19th century of farming. This farm reminds me of the Billings Farm and the National Park. It tells the story of history. I think it is a beautiful place that people should come and see. Everything looks how it does when the sisters owned it. It has an amazing view of the mountains. Right now there is a debate about if the national park should take over the farm and what they would do with is. I think this an interesting topic. I personally think the King Farm should be still owned by the state of Vermont but they should turn it into a visiting place where people get to see the life of 19th century farming and all the beauty this place has to offer.