From Mentee to Mentor!

A few weeks ago I got the chance to meet with 12 awesome students who were visiting from Chicago, Illinois. I got an e-mail from their Science teacher Nathan Dolenc who had learned about me interning here at Glacier National Park through Yosemite Park Ranger Shelton Johnson. These 12 high school seniors were from very diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and most of them had never been to a national park before. They had been raising money for this trip for a little over a year and had just raised the last bit of the $13,000 needed to come here only a week before their arrival.

I was very excited about meeting them and told Mr. Dolenc that I was looking forward to spending a day with them. Wednesday, July 27th we set out on a 4 mile round trip hike to Avalanche Lake and then once we made it to the lake the students began a mountain goat survey through Citizen Science. While they wee sitting down taking a lunch break I began discussing and sharing with them my experience here at Glacier and what it was like being one of the only minorities here. I also told them about the SCA/NPS Academy and let them know that if they were interested in a park service position that attending the upcoming NPS Academy would be an great option.

Some of the students had already decided that a career in the park service was what they wanted to do. It was so great to see the excitement on their face as they saw the diverse wildlife and beautiful mountains here at Glacier National Park. Their reactions reminded me of my first day here, when I was heading over to St. Mary and I stopped at Lake McDonald (GNP's largest lake) and I remembered thinking that I had never seen water so beautiful and so clear anywhere else.My day with the Prosser Career Academy students was by far one of my best and greatest experiences here. Sharing my experiences with them made me realize that I am now in a position where I can be a mentor to a young person.

Their teacher Mr. Dolenc is trying to make the trip to Glacier an annual one for the students at Prosser Career Academy. I think that this experience is important for kids in inner cities because it shows that their is another world outside of our concrete jungles where we live in. Trips like this will help them see that the opportunities are not just limited to whats outside our backyards or on our front stoops but their are a plethora of opportunities many miles away that should be visited and discovered.