Meet Calvin Otjen – 2021 Public Lands Stewards Intern

I’m a 26 year old Navy veteran from Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, where I spent the first 19 years of my life on a 42-acre farm in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. While growing up on the farm, my brother and I would help our parents to renovate the property as well as: butcher livestock, plant and harvest crops, and cut/store firewood and lumber. In January of 2014 I joined the U.S. Navy as an Operations Specialist, serving in San Diego for the duration of my active duty (5.5 years), where I worked for a handful of different commands. While in the service I found my love for disc golf and ocean fishing, often using them as escapes from work stressors. Upon separation from the Navy, I started school with a major in Business, Marketing, and Advertising at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, California. After a year in Oceanside, I decided it was time to move away from the place I had called home for just over six years, in pursuit of a new degree. I settled in Utah last March, and shortly after, I was accepted into the University of Utah, pursuing a new degree in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.