The First of Many Posts

Hello! My name is Kyle Maurer. I am a junior history major at Temple University, and I'm excited to be part of the newest cohort in the ProRanger program. As I was grew up, the National Park Service's sites and its mission played an important role in shaping my interests. I have been fascinated by history since I was young, and visits to National parks, battlefields, and historic sites helped to further develop that interest into a passion. Likewise, visits to National Parks helped foster an interest in both historic and nature conservation. My interest in becoming a Park Ranger was piqued two years ago during a service trip in Arizona with the Sierra Club. On this trip I helped do basic conservation work, and the combination of working outdoors and learning about the need for conservation in that environment intrigued me. I also met and spoke with a retired Park Ranger and for the first time I considered working as a Park Ranger. 

When I first heard about the ProRanger program, I was immediately drawn to it – the chance to work in such a unique field with purpose was simply too good to pass up. While I missed the deadline to apply that year, in that time I tried to learn all that I could about the ProRanger program and the National Park Service, so I did my research, volunteered over the summer, and spoke to several Park Rangers about their work. While I do not yet know where I will be for my summer internship, I am already counting the days. For this first internship, I won't have any say in where I will be going, but I am looking forward to being thrown into a new environment. Since my destination is still a mystery, I'm keeping my goals for the summer straightforward – I want to keep busy and gain as much experience as possible in the hope of gaining a better understanding of how the National Park Service operates and my responsibilities as a law enforcement park ranger.