Park Break!

Welcome to my 250th posting!! Woohoo!! Thanks to everyone for reading! :)

This week I have been posting a few job/internship notices I have seen around. I had never hear of this program before, so I thought I would pass it on since it sounds pretty cool!

The program description on their website says "Park Break is an all-expenses-paid park-based field seminar for graduate students who are thinking about a career in park management or park-related research and education. Park Break puts you in a national park unit for up to a week's worth of field and classroom activities in close collaboration with park scientists and scholars, managers and administrators, and partner organizations." Sounds pretty awesome, eh!! I wish I had known about this program when I was a grad student!

This year they are going to be working in Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, Mount Rainier National Park, and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area! The website goes on to say: "The primary goal of Park Break is to encourage promising graduate students to experience the challenges of managing a national park unit. Through instruction from and dialogue with park resource managers, researchers, administrators, interpreters, and other professionals, Park Break participants will begin to understand the complexity of park research and management. This unique program is not offered anywhere else, as it focuses on scientific and intellectual inquiry at the graduate level specifically related to national parks. Although Park Break is open to graduate students of all backgrounds, an additional goal of the program is to provide minority students with experience in national parks in order to facilitate future careers in the field of parks and protected areas research and management.



Each Park Break is designed around a specific topic. Not only will you explore that topic in depth, you'll see how it relates to the whole range of challenging issues facing park managers today. More than that, you'll be involved with agency personnel who are actively recruiting the best young people in the park professions.



Participants in Park Break are chosen through a competitive application process. We are now accepting applications for Park Break 2009. The deadline is December 31, 2008.



Park Break is organized by the George Wright Society, the USA's leading professional association for researchers, resource managers, administrators, educators, and other professionals who work in or on behalf of parks, protected areas, and cultural sites. GWS puts on Park Break in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, Geological Society of America, Student Conservation Association, Texas A&M University, and Colorado State University."

This really sounds like a cool program, so if you are able, check it out! Then get back to me and let me know what it was like - I will be super jealous :)