From Oakland to the Redwoods: A Community Volunteer Ambassador’s Story

For Latino Conservation Week, the National Park Service's Volunteers-In-Parks program told the stories of members of its Community Volunteer Ambassador (CVA) program, a fifty-week professional internship. One came from Celeste Morales, the program's National Community Volunteer Ambassador Leader in the Washington Support Office.

Celeste Morales, National Community Volunteer Ambassador Leader. NPS / Ashley Waymyth.

Under the redwoods

Morales is Chicana, with family roots in Jalisco, Mexico, and grew up in inner-city Oakland, California. Money was tight, and her world rarely reached beyond her neighborhood and apartment complex. With little guidance, she learned to handle hard circumstances herself, and leaned on mentors who pushed her.

Her first camping trip, beneath the coast redwoods, changed that. Standing under the canopy of giant trees, she wept with joy at a beauty she had not known existed — and wondered why it had taken so long to find.

In college she worked to make outdoor recreation more accessible through her city's parks and recreation department, and led underground mine tours for her regional park district. She became the first in her family to earn a four-year degree.

Volunteers at Hot Springs National Park. NPS / Kendra Barat.

Two roles with the Park Service

Since then she has worked on opening public lands to more people, serving in two roles in the CVA program. Through them, she says, she grew as a leader and as an advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.

National Early Service Training. Credit: National Park Service.

She met Park Service Director Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III and told him both of her hopes for a career in public lands and of her frustration, as a person of color, at trying to thrive in places that have historically been white. The conversation encouraged her to lead by example: not just to take a seat at the table, but to speak up from it. She expected the path to be hard, and committed to making it easier for the next generation.

At the Office of the Director. Credit: National Park Service.

One of her favorite projects as national leader was a podcast series, Conservation Diaries. She closed with an invitation: to join in inspiring new stewards, and to help Latino communities show their commitment to protecting the country's natural, cultural and recreational resources for good.

Sources

Based on "Community Volunteer Ambassadors Celebrate Latino Conservation Week," by Celeste Morales, Volunteers-In-Parks program, published by the National Park Service; rewritten in hubnx's own words.