When I first began my internship
with the Society for Wilderness Stewardship, I had no idea
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SWS logo
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what I was getting
myself into. I didn’t even really know what Wilderness stewardship was. My
internship supervisor, Mark Douglas, had been my teacher a year prior, so I
gravitated toward him originally because I was familiar with his teaching style
and I knew I would enjoy working with him. When he said his internship was
about finding stories through Wilderness, I was sold. I’ve never been much of a
story teller, but I have always loved listening to and learning about other
people’s stories. The backgrounds that other people come from fascinate me, so
I figured I would enjoy an internship where I just listened to other people
tell me about their lives.
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Header for my Zahnie article
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Starting the internship, it was not
entirely what I expected. The first two articles I ended up writing for the
website involved researching famous Wilderness stewards Edward Abbey and Howard
Zahniser and writing 1600 words on each of them. Because I am not the strongest
writer and I had never written anything for the public sphere, these articles
both ended in all-nighters. I was stressed out about real people actually
reading them, as opposed to my teachers who I knew wouldn’t judge me too much
for a mistake in my writing. However, after discussing the future of my
internship with Mark and getting my first two articles published, my nerves
calmed down and I was able to get to business.
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| Header for my interview with Christina Mills |
My second two articles were both
interviews, per my request. I had really been looking forward to talking to
real people during my internship and asking them my own questions, so these two
articles were the most fun I have had so far. I first interviewed Christina
Mills, a Yellowstone Outdoor Recreation Planner who went to graduate school at
the University of Montana. I got to brainstorm what I wanted the interview to
focus on, and come up with my own questions to ask her. My second interview was
with Alex Weinberg, a classmate of Christina in graduate school. Much like the
first interview, I got to come up with my own questions and really think about
what I wanted to ask Alex.
Through this internship I have
definitely learned the value of time management. My first two articles were so
incredibly stressful, due in part to the fact that I waited until the last
couple of days to write them. I have also learned how to conduct successful
interviews, think on my feet, and talk eloquently on the phone (something I
have always struggled with). I also learned that, without fail, transcription will
always take longer than you think it will.
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Alex Weinberg, subject of my last interview (unpublished as of 4/23/15)
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My internship is valuable to me both
as a woman trying to get experience in her field, and as a current Wilderness
and Civilization student. The stories and connections with Wilderness are
incredibly important to it’s conservation, as I learned through my classes last
semester. Without a valuable connection to the land, people would unfortunately
not feel much need to save it. Telling these stories and inspiring others to
seek out similar experiences is an incredibly valuable part of conserving our
wild areas. With more and more people connecting to things via computers, the
importance of creating a sphere of Wilderness Stewardship online is growing.
The idea that someone may read my articles and be inspired to go experience the
Wilderness is nothing short of incredible to me.
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Header for my first article
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I’m still figuring out what
Wilderness means to me and how I can become a Wilderness Steward after this
internship is over. By writing these articles, I feel that I am not only
contributing to the vast need for online Wilderness Stewardship, but I am
discovering how to answer my own questions. What does Wilderness Stewardship
mean to me? What was my transformative Wilderness experience? I don’t entirely
know the answers, but I do know that at the end of my internship I’ll be a lot
closer to finding out
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