After LHIP, Chantelle applied to a long term fellowship Outreach position. In this role, Chantelle helped plan and organize many different community events, parades, and programs, including San Antonio Farm Day and Latino Conservation Week events. Working with park-wide staff, community partners, and volunteers, Farm Day in Mission San Juan brought 2,000 visitors to the park in 2018, an increase of over 800 visitors from the year before.

In addition to her helping coordinate these events, Chantelle also had opportunities to deliver educational programs for school kids visiting the missions. Finding enjoyment in this dimension of her work, Chantelle applied and was offered a Bilingual Park Guide at the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park a few months ago using her non-competitive hiring status through the Public Lands Corps (PLC) authority. In this new role, Chantelle will be providing Spanish and English interpretation tours in the different missions comprising the historical park.

Thinking of her time working with NPS, Chantelle shares that: “These missions have not only taught me new professional skills but have allowed me to reflect on concepts of colonization. Spanish and indigenous history connected to my family’s history and the Mexican traditions that are part of my culture.”