I don’t know how time flew by so quickly, I cannot believe it has been 11 weeks. This internship is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It has been difficult and challenging at times, but most of all it has been so rewarding. I have learned so much both about myself and about careers in the National Park Service. 

When I first started my internship I wasn’t sure what to expect because I was no longer going to be interning on site. I was so happy when I first met my SEKI mentors Emily and Cristina, they instantly made me feel incredibly welcome and eased any of my stress that I had going into my internship. Cristina was an LHIP intern in the summer of 2016, so she did her best to be an extra resource and pass on any helpful knowledge she had. I really appreciated her help because it was nice to be able to speak to someone who had gone through the same experience. It was extremely beneficial to be able to ask her questions about my LHIP intern work as well. 

Although I didn’t get to have the traditional LHIP experience, I am grateful for the experience that I did get. I was able to visit my site for a couple of days and meet my mentors in person. I was hoping to visit again before the end of my internship, but I am just grateful that I was able to go up at least once. 

I want to say thank you to Emily and Cristina at SEKI for all their patience and guidance they have provided me. They were always there to reassure me and ensure that I wasn’t stressing over anything too much. I want to say thank you to Evelyn from Hispanic Access Foundation for always checking in on me and making sure that I was doing okay as well. Without my mentors at SEKI or Hispanic Access Foundation I wouldn’t have been as successful this summer and I probably would have been 20 times more stressed. I am so grateful for being able to connect with the other interns in my cohort as well. Maybe one day, when it is safe to do, so I will be able to meet up with some of them. For now, I am grateful to be able to connect with them digitally. This program has been an amazing experience, and I am so sad that it is now over. I highly recommend anyone interested in natural resource conservation, history, or environmental science to apply to be an LHIP intern, you won’t regret it!

Agency: National Park Service

Program: Latino Heritage Internship Program (LHIP)

Location: Sequoia National Forest