Mt. Adams Institute, AmeriCorps, and their VetsWork Environment program have granted me a splendid chance to find a job in my desired field. I’ve always known that I wanted to work outdoors and because of fortunate incidents I found myself a great opportunity as an intern with the Forest Service.

So far the internship has been great, both my supervisor and the Mt. Adams Institute folks have been a great source of support in getting me settled into my role with the Umatilla National Forest. I’ve had tons of great experiences already, including: presenting at an inspirational high school careers based conference, writing press releases, and many hours of time spent on publisher making documents for the various outreach events we have.

Already planned for the future are abounding opportunities to further my experience within the agency. Most excitingly I get to be Smokey Bear at an upcoming event! Talk about crossing off bucket list items! In addition I’m going to get to work on some wilderness trails with the pack team (also super cool) and get my red card so that I can fight fires.

If this internship continues in the same way, which I imagine it will, I will have had a great year.