Hey America. My name is Adam Flebesy.
I'm 21 years old and an Aries. I really
enjoy candlelit dinners and evening
strolls along the Pa'rus Trail. >>Adam, what are you
doing? This is supposed to be your intern
minute. >>Yeah right
Hey everyone, welcome to Zion National Park, intern minutes. I'm a senior at Michigan
State University out here all summer in
southern Utah at Zion National Park as
the interpretive intern. Now if you're
wondering what it's like to be the
intern out here in the interpretive
division, I can tell you it's pretty
great. I work at the Museum and the
visitors center desks helping visitors
by answering their questions and getting
them oriented to the park.
I get to write my own interpretive
programs and give them multiple times a
week. I give two twenty five minute long
patio talks, one 2 hour guided hike, and one 2
hour shuttle tour. The topics of these
programs range from wildlife to geology
to human history.
So for writing these programs I wasn't
just thrown to the mountain lions I had
some really helpful people showing me
the ropes and helping me out along the
way. These are my mentors Kim and Eleanor.
They're great for bouncing ideas off of
and they never say "do this! don't do that!"
This is my supervisor Jin, she's really
flexible and open to new ideas.
So I have almost all the same
responsibilities as a regular Park
Ranger but there are a few big
differences. One, I don't get to wear the
swanky ranger uniform.
Two, I don't get the regular Ranger pay
instead I get a weekly food stipend.
Three, free housing in the park. This is
where I live. This is called the Oak
Creek dormitory. It's not so much a
dormitory as it is a big house.
In my spare time when I'm not working I've gotten to go rock climbing, canyoneering,
backpacking, hiking, and traveling all
over the southwest. When I was younger
traveling around to the different
national parks
I saw the Rangers and the flat hats
walking around outside having a good
time interacting with the public but I
never realized the time and effort put
into being a park ranger and after this
internship I have insight as to what
it's like working for the National Park
Service and I also realized that this is
something that I'd like to pursue as a
career. So if you're interested in
finding more information about this
internship in interpretation here at
Zion you can do so at the parks website
