A NEW PATH

By Brenna McBride (she/her)

I’ve never known what I wanted to do for a career, but I do know what I like do: being active outside, teaching, learning about the natural world, and helping others to value and exist in awe of the beauty around us.

When I graduated in 2020, nothing seemed possible. For me, finishing school meant moving back in with my parents and unemployment that stretched on for months. The same day passed over and over again, repetitive and unfulfilling.

As the weeks wore into months, I accepted a geocontractor position with a geospatial company I didn’t really want to work for. GIS (geographic information systems) wasn’t my passion, but at least it was a job... Until it wasn’t. Two months into the position, I was laid off again due to uncertainties around COVID-19. Back to unemployment. Eventually, I applied for a program that a friend had mentioned in a Zoom hangout: the Scientists in Parks program.

I was rejected from all five positions I originally applied to with Scientists in Parks. But then one day, I got an email. An ‘interest check’ for an Education Assistant position at the Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve. I emailed right back, saying “yes, yes, yes! I’m still interested!” One interview later, I received that coveted email: “come work at the Oregon Caves.”

That was the beginning of something new. I felt it in the air the day I pulled my car up to the snow-covered, cedar-sided lodges in the forests of the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon—this was something new and wonderful.

I will never be able to speak highly enough of my time at the Oregon Caves. I relished every time I got to venture into those dark limestone caverns, hearing the heavy gate swing shut behind me but knowing I’d just passed through a door to a world of strange geology, animals, and history. The opportunity to talk about the many geologic wonders of my home state brought out a new person in me. I was more invested each day. After struggling for so long to find a way to channel my passions into an actual paid job, I wasn’t taking anything for granted.

The cave wasn’t the only gift that I received from my internship. Other opportunities for growth kept coming. I co-led a workshop for teachers from all over the nation about climate change and its impacts on the caves. I got to shadow researchers from the Klamath Bird Observatory as they banded songbirds, surveyed bats with the Resource Management staff, and helped prepare an astronomy program for a night sky event. For my final project, I streamlined the geology trainings – helping to explain how our caves work to future guides, hoping they would find it all as fascinating as I did.

The five months I spent at the Oregon Caves were some of the happiest in my life. I experienced such a sense of camaraderie and belonging. I hadn’t realized how rich and full every day can feel when you are surrounded by work and people that you love.

My Scientists in Parks term at the Oregon Caves put me on a new path. Growing up, I never considered working for the National Park Service (NPS) as a career. I was never the kid who went to the National Parks on road trips. But after my term at the Oregon Caves, I recognized that there was potential for me in the NPS. Because of my Scientists in Parks internship, I am now the Community Volunteer Ambassador at Zion National Park in Utah —another Conservation Legacy position. I hope to continue my NPS career and become an official ranger. Conservation Legacy and its programs opened up a new world—one where I can feel pride and joy in the work I’m doing. D