I’ve been finding it difficult to give people a proper answer to the question "what do you do for work?" - there is no easy or complete job description I can offer up. From week to week, I’m often doing a wide range of completely different and unique tasks; the work follows the flow of our projects, which often leads to unexpected asks.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been asked to utilize my artistic abilities to create a variety of sketchy drawings for the Denali Borough’s Community and Outdoor Recreation Plan. This was not a task I was expecting at all to receive during my fellowship, and one that I found myself enjoying very much. I got to spend much of the month tracing, drawing, and playing around with Photoshop and Illustrator to digitize and clean up my visuals. I’ve done many art projects over the years, but I have never created visuals for others in a professional capacity. I learned so much about the process and the demands of such an ask, and found myself thinking in spite of myself - maybe I can do this for a living?

What I have loved about this internship is how many different times it has made me ask myself this question. My team has done a great job of giving me exposure to all sorts of projects and types of work. In the past few months, I helped organize and synthesize cultural stories and information for interpretive panels, I joined in surveying a trail we are helping to transform into a Dena’ina cultural education trail, I reviewed applications from potential projects and helped my team make decisions on which projects to accept, I took a Wilderness First Aid class, I attended a meetup with other fellows from around the country in San Francisco, I assisted with outreach by mailing materials to 227 Alaska tribes, I attended the Alaska Forum on the Environment conference, I learned and presented about Story Map and trail plan formats to give project partners some inspiration, I attended site visits and dozens of different meetings and acted as a notetaker, I helped put on design charrettes, and the list goes on.

I’m excited for what the next 6 months will bring.