From fossil intern to curator of three Idaho parks: Alexander Kim

Alexander Kim beside the Hagerman horse at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. NPS photo.

In January 2021 Alexander Kim arrived at the National Park Service as an intern, cataloguing fossils. By September of the same year Kim was on staff, and today is the museum curator for three very different parks in southern Idaho. The route in — an internship that turned into a job in nine months — is one the Park Service offers on purpose, and Kim's advice to anyone considering it is to take it.

Three parks, one collection to keep

As curator, Kim oversees museum operations and the management of all three collections, with occasional interpretive work and exhibit design. It is the job of a park, in Kim's words, to connect visitors with the natural history and cultural heritage of the place they are standing in — and a museum collection is where that history is physically kept.

From intern to curator

Kim came in through Scientists in Parks, the Park Service's programme that places early-career scientists in parks for paid, hands-on work. As a paleontology intern, Kim managed the museum collections, identified and catalogued specimens, and wrote interpretive text for visitors. In September 2021 came a job as a museum technician; the curator's post followed.

Kim's advice to young people thinking about the same path is practical: don't be afraid of opportunities that push you out of your comfort zone, and test the waters with an internship if you can, because it makes getting into the park service much easier later.

The part that isn't in the job description

Every park has strong ties to the towns around it, and Kim counts fostering that connection — a sense of local pride in what the parks keep — among the most important parts of the work. Outside it: reading, time with friends, and — by Kim's own account — giving the cat too much attention.

Sources

Written from the National Park Service's "Staff Spotlight: Alexander Kim" (Hagerman Fossil Beds, Craters of the Moon and Minidoka), a work of the United States government in the public domain.