Exciting News for Summer II

Hello everyone! It is me Brennan from Cohort 5. Roughly a year ago I posted my first ProRanger blog post, where I was able to introduce myself and announce my first summer internship would be with The National Parks of Boston.  The succession of blog posts that followed told the story of my summer and I will include the links to all of my previous blog posts below so you can catch up if you are new to the blog. Overall, my summer up in Boston taught me so much about the park’s operations and how all five of the division work together to ensure that the National Park Service’s mission is carried out. 

The ProRanger program has kept me on my feet (in the most literal sense) all school year. Over the past year I have been involved in so many ranger related activities such as PEB’s, control tactics trainings, MOCC Training (Motorboat Operator Certification Course), recruitment events, guest speakers, Firearms Safety Training, weekend camping trips, and so much more. In addition to these hands on experiences, I was able to engage in three classes offered here at Temple University for the ProRanger Program titled, “Leadership & Communication,” “Land Management and Federal Law Enforcement,” and finally “An Introduction to Heritage Interpretation in the National Park Service.”  I found these courses to be extremely informative and applicable to my summer internship and ultimately my career in the NPS. Both my experiences in and out of the classroom this past school year are all adding up to give me the valuable tools I need for my summer internship and beyond.

Getting quite familiar with this handbook  

     ↓↓Announcement ↓↓

Now that I have brought you up to speed, I would like to make a huge announcement! For my summer II internship I will be at St. Croix which includes Christiansted National Historic Site, Buck Island Reef National Monument, and Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve and at San Juan National Historic Site in San Juan Puerto Rico.  I have not yet mastered the skill of being in two places at once, so my summer will be split up between the two islands. The first five weeks will be spent on St. Croix and the following five weeks will be spent at San Juan National Historic site.

This summer internship will be different from my first internship in that I will be spending the entire ten weeks with Law Enforcement. I am very excited about this, and really look forward to focusing all of my attention on learning as much as I can in terms of LE in the Park Service. That being said, my experiences in Boston and with the program have taught me the importance of the five divisions all working together to ensure the park runs smoothly and safely. With this knowledge, I am eager to extend myself to the other four divisions and learn from them to gain an all-encompassing understanding of the parks.

Summer reading never looked so good 

In other news, the Park Leaders show is a podcast I enjoy listening to that focuses on leadership in county, state, federal, and even international parks. I was able to connect two of my favorite park leadership influences, Temple Prorangers and The Park Leaders show which led to the creation of this episode.  Listen closely to my segment at the end of the podcast!

“In this episode of the Park Leaders Show, Adrian discusses the ProRanger Program. We also hear from Brennan McAuley.Brennan McAuley is a student in the ProRanger program. Brennan shares his experience in the program and gives us an inside look to being a student working towards becoming a Park Ranger”. – Jody Maberry 

Here are the National Park Service units I will be working at this summer!

 Christiansted National Historic Site

 Buck Island Reef National Monument

Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve

 San Juan National Historic Site

Read up on my last summer internship here!!

Introduction  , Week 1 , Week 2 , Week 3 , Week 4 , Week 5 ,  Week 6 , Week 7 , Week 8 , Week 9 , Week 10

Thanks for reading.  Be sure to stay tuned because it is going to be one incredible summer!