I had this belief that I wasn’t going to be able to find a job related to my degree and interests nearby when all of a sudden I noticed an internship opportunity with the MANO Project in my hometown of Los Banos, CA. It was a visitor services intern position at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge and it was only a 15-minute drive from home.

I always heard about the refuge, but never went since I oddly thought it wasn’t a space meant for me. As a daughter of Latino immigrant parents in a very agriculturally based town, I would hear about the refuge from boys who were duck hunting with their parents who usually were farmers. Farm fields surrounded my elementary school, so there was sort of a clear distinction between the “agriculture kids” and those who didn’t have parents working in that industry. I didn’t understand what a refuge was and neither did my Spanish-speaking parents, so neither my family nor I ever got to explore the beautiful nearby wildlife.

At my interview, I am shockingly asked if I know how to make videos, take photos, and do social media tasks. I have always had a deep love for photography but never mentioned it on my resume, since I assumed a science-related job wouldn’t care about my artistic talents. It seemed this internship opportunity was a match made in heaven since it was so close to home, and was associated with biology, and they wanted me to use my artistic abilities to spread awareness to nearby communities about the refuge.

I got hired and my first task was coming up with a way to create outreach to local communities about a special event we have at the San Luis NWR called Elk Day, where there would be a hayride in the elk enclosure, archery, kid’s activities, and more. I ended up using all of my skills to create outreach in the form of videos and flyers to promote this event in English and Spanish. The outreach I did was so successful that my supervisor was a little concerned if there would be too many people at our event, and he was right because we had over 700 attendees when normally it is much less. Many people from local Hispanic communities came to the refuge for the first time and asked me many questions in Spanish about the refuge since a lot of our online information was in English. I guided them on where to find us on social media, showed them what the refuge has to offer, and when are the best times to come see wildlife.

It was such a beautiful experience to be a part of the reason why now some of the Hispanic community in Los Banos is aware of the refuge and that they can bring their kids to enjoy wildlife. It made me emotional as well since even my parents came to the event to support me and enjoyed wildlife for themselves while on a hayride in the elk enclosure. Now the San Luis NWR is going to create a new trail with panels in English and Spanish, which I helped translate. I recognized the value of having a diverse staff in that moment since finally now people with similar backgrounds as me have access to this free space that provides so much knowledge and growth for their kids. I am only 2 months into my internship and it feels like I have caused so much great change for the communities around me. I can’t wait to see how much more I will grow with this internship.