Six Corps Members on Serving in the Parks: A National Park Week Panel, 2024

The event on Zoom: an ASL interpreter, moderator Nichole McHenry of the NPS, and the six panelists. NPS photo.

The event

On April 24, 2024, for National Park Week, the National Park Service's Youth and Young Adult Programs Division co-hosted a virtual event, "Then/Now/Tomorrow: Empowering Our Future Conservation and Climate Stewards," with The Corps Network, the National Park Foundation and AmeriCorps. More than 200 people joined on Zoom, and the stream on the division's Facebook page has 11.3K views. A panel of six current and former corps members talked about working and serving on public lands.

Why corps matter

• Nichole McHenry, the Park Service's Relevancy, Diversity, and Inclusion Program Manager for the Midwest Region, moderated. She noted the Service's long history of working with service, conservation and youth organizations to involve teens and young adults in service projects and education in parks, and mentioned the newly launched American Climate Corps.
• Tracey Ritchie of the National Park Foundation said corps members contribute in meaningful ways, including through Maintenance Action Teams and projects funded by the Great American Outdoors Act.
• Yasmeen Shaheen-McConnell of AmeriCorps said it has 30 years of experience, and nearly 15,000 members served in climate, conservation and environmental stewardship positions in the last year alone.
• Jamie Crispin, the division's Youth Program Manager, said it connects more than 5,700 young people each year to paid internships at national park sites, building the leadership and hands-on skills they'll need for conservation careers.

The panel

In their words:

• Doty: "I wanted to work amongst nature right outside of college, make a difference on the land that I could see, and travel around."
• Vélez: "Now I'm able to communicate effectively and with a lot of people. I couldn't do that before."
• Hall, on why the work matters for young Indigenous people: "to explore and work on integrating traditional ecological knowledge, personal development, and meaningful project work based on our ancestral lands on the reservation."
• Miladin, on sharing results — from published research to one corps connecting with another: it "would create a powerful network that allows for other climate stewards and the public to know all of the great work that's being done."
• Bunker: "There are actions that we can each do, and if each and every one of us does it, that can add up to a lot of change."

Getting started

• No background needed: George McDonald, Senior Advisor for Youth Programs, said entry-level positions are the perfect way in. Opportunities span the Department of the Interior — the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and more — and service corps individual placements, stewardships and fellowships get a foot in the door. People are needed in every kind of role, whether their background is environmental science, communications or another field.
• Beyond public lands: Sandy Scott of AmeriCorps said many AmeriCorps programs — environmental stewardship, conservation, clean energy, disaster response, solar installation, urban farms and gardens — aren't tied to particular land, and others focus on education and mental health.
• A corps for everyone: Mary Ellen Sprenkle added that many corps programs serve young people who need help finishing high school, are in the juvenile system or are leaving foster care: "No matter where you are, where you're coming from, your skill level, your interest level, there is a corps for you."
• Make connections: Nicole Mason, a service-wide coordinator for the Park Service, urged the audience to find something they love, imagine where they want to be, and take chances for new experiences, connections and networking.

Parting words

• Hall: "Honor and support conservation efforts."
• Crispin urged people to step outside their comfort zones and "to find a personal connection to one of our national parks, to nature, or just to history and see where that takes you."
• Miladin: "There are a lot of brilliant and dedicated people that are doing great work and they're making a difference and you can be a part of that too."

More: the Park Service's youth programs.

Sources

Based on "Event Recap - Empowering Our Future Conservation and Climate Stewards," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.