I recently started an internship with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) as a Visitor Services Intern. have previously worked in the environmental world through the private sector and studied environmental sciences throughout my education. Getting to work from the government side of things has been exciting and filled with ample amounts of opportunities. Originally, the FWS had planned on making my position strictly for visitors’ services like staffing the visitor center, doing roving interpretation of plants and animals, leading or helping with educational events, and creating resources to teach people about the natural world and what the lands that the FWS owns have to offer for recreation. That would have been fine because I have always admired people who were knowledgeable about the environment and wanted to develop the skills needed to share what I know with other people. My role here has expanded significantly because of the needs of the FWS, my work and educational history, and a little bit of luck on my part.
Starting at the end of April, I will be spending a large portion of my time filling the vacant role of a Biological Technician Intern. This happened because the FWS was only able to find one person for this position when they were trying to get two. Because I have studied plant ecology and geographic information systems (GIS) for environmental uses in addition to having two years of environmental restoration through a private company in Olympia, Washington, they have offered me the opportunity to serve in both visitors’ services and biology. I am really excited for this because I will still get to develop my ability to share knowledge with others through educational events and staffing the visitor center as well as participate in things like tern surveys and forest inventories, which is one path I hope to pursue as a potential career option.
One thing that has surprised me since working here is how friendly and helpful my mentors and coworkers have been. I get the feeling that everyone around me has a genuine desire to see me grow and succeed. This goes from having conversations with me, to providing me opportunities to work on projects that help me build important skills, to pointing me to resources and opportunities for what I should do after I finish my internship here. My ability to use GIS and other mapping tools have been of a big interest to everyone around me. It is rare that a week has gone by that I have not made a map for someone or provided advice on optimizing GIS workflows or data management (it is kind of geeky, but I really enjoy it)! I have also gotten plenty of advice, and will have workshops, too, on how I should go about finding a position with the federal government in the future. I have had trouble getting my career started, so this has been particularly helpful because it feels like the FWS has the goal of not only giving me valuable work experience, but also giving me the tools to succeed in the future as well!
Agency: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Program: US Fish & Wildlife Service
Location: Alaska Office of Law Enforcement