I am a little late writing this blog - but I think for good reason. I’ve spent the last three months working hard to improve the office of outdoor recreation’s internal communication strategy and foster a community among NPS staff. I’ve become the manager for an internal newsletter to NPS staff and launched a webinar series that features outdoor recreation experts and practitioners. 

In addition to work, I’ve been working on my application for grad school. I’m applying to study for my master’s in landscape architecture, a passion I learned during my fellowship and something I would have never thought I would be doing a year ago. I finally finished the arduous process this week. 

Despite being on my computer in my little Washington, D.C. apartment for most of this time period, I learned a bounty of important life lessons. Overwhelmingly, creativity is something that is desperately needed. National parks are facing problems they’ve never faced before, like overwhelming visitor numbers and depleted natural resources. At the same time, the NPS is approaching problems that are centuries old, like inequity in visitation demographics and creating more accessible parks for people of all abilities. 

The truth is that what got us to this point in time will not get us where we want to be. Creative, out-of-the-box solutions are essential to solving the problems of today. But creativity is not something that just shows up one day. My application for grad school asked for a portfolio of work that demonstrated my creative process, which is something I had never thought about. Creating this portfolio demonstrated how much work goes into thinking of an idea, validating it, and finishing a tangible outcome. Creativity is a muscle that you have to exercise, and something that you can get infinitely better at with time. 

I’ve been painting for 10 years and making art for much longer. Looking back, I can see my art and creative process shift and grow from when I started as a freshman in high school. My final products have become boundlessly better, not only technically, but they are more thoughtful, original, and interesting. 

My fellowship has taught me to exercise that same muscle in the realm of outdoor recreation and the problems at hand. Throughout the seven months, I’ve had the privilege to be in this position, I have learned that the creative solution is not always right, but it is important to say out loud - it might spark an idea in someone else. I’m still cultivating my creative process in the workplace, but it is something I’m excited to work on as I continue working with my team. Creativity is an incredibly important skill that everyone should take time to be mindful of and let run wild - who knows what your ideas could lead you to.

Agency: National Park Service

Program: Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Program (COR)

Location: Washington Office Region 1

In late October, I had the privilege of being a part of the Emerging Leaders Program at the SHIFT conference in Grand Junction Colorado. I was recognized as a young professional that identifies the environment as a social determinant of health. The conference and leadership program brought so much meaningful connection to a lot of my fellowship work, including Executive Orders that deal with reducing barriers to access public spaces. 

My favorite thing about the conference by far was the keynote speaker, Melody Mobley. This trailblazing woman was the first Black forester in the Forest Service. She gave a compelling account of her journey through her career, recounting the many challenges that were continuously thrown at her. She also discussed the importance of exposing kids and community members to nature as we seek justice in our communities. It was incredibly inspiring to me to see her speak with such conviction about a topic that I feel so passionate about as well. 

The connection between participants was another one of my favorite parts. This was my first time in an in person professional event since the pandemic began. It was refreshing to connect with people in a much more organic way than muting and unmuting oneself on zoom. I was able to make connections with a public health professor from a university in Texas, a landscape architect that created programming for public spaces in Chicago, and countless other individuals that had different perspectives from my own. 

I had a particularly fun time engaging with the other seven individuals in the Emerging Leaders Program. They, like me, were also starting their careers in this interdisciplinary space of human well being, recreation, and conservation. While most of us only met through zoom, we created connections by talking about our work, personal influences, and future goals. 

Being in Grand Junction also provided a lot of connection to our natural world. I had the opportunity to visit the Colorado National Monument and participate in a six mile hike. Not only was the hike therapeutic, but it also provided more context to the work my office does. I was able to learn about native plants and animals, while learning more about land management and national agencies. 

If any future fellow is reading this post, I recommend you take part in this conference in future years! 

Until next time, 

Ximena

Agency: National Park Service

Program: Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Program (COR)

Location: Washington Office Region 1

If you told me a year ago that I would be working for the National Park Service today, I would have never believed you. After immigrating to the United States from Mexico at a very young age, I grew up in an extremely conservative place that lacked ethnic and racial diversity. While I did grow up close to a lot of nature, my marginalized identity made me feel like I did not belong in these spaces. I felt like there was a threshold of entry. To be a part of this space, it felt like you had to have grown up learning how to do the outdoors by your family, but I was never taught by my family. My ties to nature and my environment had been fractured through my move to a new and unfamiliar place that never quite felt like my own.

I accepted this fellowship because I have recently found that I wanted to grow personally and through my career in conservation; I found myself naturally gravitating towards experiences in the outdoors as an adult. Through this experience as an Outdoor Recreation Fellow, I expected to grow my knowledge about public lands, conservation, and the vast amount of organizations and networks that exist in this world. I have found that to be true during my first two months in this position, but I have also gained something that has impacted me profoundly: community.

I went on a camping trip to Potomac, Maryland with other fellows and alumni for Latino Conservation Week in July. This was my first time camping. I had never pitched a tent before, slept in a sleeping bag, or been outside late enough in the night in a remote place to not be able to see anything without a flashlight. I experienced a new facet of the outdoors and it was thrilling! 

Yet, the people on the trip are what truly made it special. Other fellows and alumni on the trip shared stories and feelings around our campfire that night about how we had come to realize and pursue our passions in the outdoors. I came to find that a lot of the others also had felt marginalized growing up and for various reasons they had felt like they could not be a part of the outdoors until very recently in their lives -- just like me. Even though everyone had felt like this, they were determined to be a part of conservation and live out their truths finding their own connections to the environment -- just like me.

Being in community with these individuals motivated me so much in how I view myself in these outdoor spaces, but also in my work as a fellow. I work in the Office of Outdoor Recreation, which focuses not only on expanding the range of recreation opportunities available to visitors, but also works to expand the population who recreate outdoors. The stories I heard on the camping trip proved how important it was to address the widespread barriers to access for our under-resourced communities to be able to participate in the outdoors. During my fellowship, I want to help identify these barriers in our own systems and to find innovative, sustainable solutions to these problems, so that hopefully we can build Latinx communities in the coming generations that will look at the outdoors and believe that nature is for them too.

Agency: National Park Service

Program: Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Program (COR)

Location: Washington Office Region 1