Meet Chelsea Niles, Program Manager of Interpretation, Education, and Partnerships at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. Her park story begins with her first Junior Ranger experience!
"Many people are surprised to learn that I didn't visit my first national park until I was an adult. I understood the inherent value of nature and wildness growing up in Michigan, exploring every wood and water I could find, but I didn’t truly understand the value of protected land until I was in college.
I was traveling from Michigan to California for a summer internship, not park related, when the friends I was traveling with suggested that we take a detour through Yellowstone National Park-a detour that would change my life. I left Yellowstone with one completed junior ranger book, an over-the-top junior ranger swear-in, a patch, and memories of the most incredible place I had ever been. After several days and a thousand more miles of mulling my visit to Yellowstone over, I knew that I wanted to be a part of protecting our nation's national park sites forever.
One year and several junior ranger badges later I graduated from college and accepted a summer internship at Zion. It was there that I had the privilege of swearing in my first junior ranger. Two-years later I worked at a Yellowstone visitor center desk alongside the ranger who helped catalyze my love for public lands by swearing me in as a junior ranger years before. I have worked in thirteen national park sites and sworn-in thousands of junior rangers over my eight-year career. Though I take great pride in wearing the national park ranger uniform, I am equally proud to become a junior ranger at every park I visit, and take the most pride in swearing in new junior rangers. I hope that my story shows that there's a ranger in us all no matter how or when you fall in love with the National Park Service."
How have the places that you protect provided enjoyment, solace, inspiration, or other powerful experiences? Share your story with a park place that is special to you on social media using #MyParkStory.
Where you reached a summit
Where your ancestors walked
Where you found your artistic muse
Where history was made that shaped your life
Where you got struck by a truly breathtaking view
Where you realized your next steps in life's journey
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service