Imagine spending an entire semester attending classes in Bryce Canyon National Park and living/working just minutes from the park. Sounds almost too good to be true! Well, I did this and I can tell you it was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had in my life. I’d love to share with you what Semester in the Parks is all about, but before I do that, I want to share with you my background so you know how I got here. Let’s Jump right in!
Growing up in Las Vegas, I was blessed to have a family that loved the outdoors. We would hike, fish, and camp a lot more than most other families we knew. I always knew I loved being outside, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study in college. When I was a sophomore in high school, my family took a trip to Ely, Nevada and Great Basin National Park. When we made it to the Lehman Caves Visitor Center, I started talking to a Park Ranger that introduced to me all of the possible outdoor jobs one could obtain. This was the conversation that got the wheels spinning. I always knew recreating outside was fun, but I had no idea you could make money in the outdoor industry.
Fast forward to the summer before senior year of high school. My school offered extra science credits that you could acquire by attending a few weeks of classes and then participating in a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota. I attended the classes and went on the trip. We spent about a week backpacking, camping, and canoeing in the wildernes with our fellow classmates and no electronics. After this trip, I knew for a fact that I wanted to work outside. I knew I didn’t want to be cooped up in an office all day working a desk job.
I applied for a few colleges, but my top two were University of Montana and Southern Utah University. Ultimately I chose Southern Utah University aka the “University of the Parks”. SUU is called the “University of the Parks” because it “is within a five-hour drive of more than 20 national parks and monuments in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada.” There were two big reasons why I chose SUU other than it’s awesome Outdoor Recreation program. The first was Semester in the Parks. The second was the Intergovernmental Internship Cooperative. I will be talking about both of these things.
Let‘s start with Semester in the Parks. This is an amazing one of a kind program. For an entire semester seven other students and I got to take our classes in Bryce Canyon National Park. We all worked for Ruby’s Inn and lived in their employee housing just outside the park. Monday through Friday we would work from 7am to 11am in housekeeping. Then we would have a little break followed by class in the park. Class would last from 1pm to 4pm. Some people got a second job and worked extra after class.
One of the best parts about this program was every other weekend we would go on an excursion somewhere. We went to Great Basin National Park, Zion National Park, Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, Grand Canyon National Park, and we even participated in a multi day river trip down the Colorado River. It was tons of fun! I met amazing people and had the time of my life. Semester in the Parks really allowed me to see and understand different aspects of outdoor recreation.
After Semester in the Parks, I decided to look into the Intergovernmental Internship Cooperative. According to the IIC website, “the IIC engages youth in building meaningful leadership and educational skills. These experiences provide opportunities to develop a working knowledge about natural and cultural resources and a variety of careers in public lands management while shaping the next generation of public land leaders and advocates.” I have worked as an IIC intern for three seasons now. I have been able to work at Bryce Canyon National Park in 2019, Cedar City Bureau of Land Management in 2020, and Cedar Breaks National Monument this year. I decided to participate in the IIC because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be after college and I thought this would allow me to explore my options.
I have had three different job titles in the last three years. In Bryce Canyon I worked as a Recreation Monitoring Research Assistant Intern. At Cedar City BLM I worked as a Recreation Technician Intern. Lastly, at Cedar Breaks, I am working as a Natural Resource Intern. The IIC has been wonderful because I was able to gain so much experience working in different fields for multiple public land agencies and get my foot in the door all before I graduated college.
I am so thankful that things worked out how they did and that I was able to discover my passion very early on. I am so happy with where I am in life right now. If you are interested in participating in either Semester in the Parks or the Intergovernmental Internship Cooperative, you should visit their websites! I linked them below!
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