National Park Service Guest Speaker

Gretchen Knapp from the National Park Service stopped by the field station on Wednesday evening to speak to college students and CBFS staff about her job and the different jobs offered at the National Park Service.

Gretchen began by giving some background about herself. She was an instructor at CBFS for two years. This began her career with the park service where she has been for 25 years.

“That’s what gave me real life experience to do what I’m doing,” Gretchen said.

She started off as an interpreter by doing programs with the public and helping them engage with the environment around them. Now, she has moved up to be a supervisor. Not only has this position allowed her to use her background in marine biology, but she has also gained skills in many other areas including graphic design and website management.

“Park services is evolving as well to meet the needs of our visitors. We’re really trying to preserve cultural and natural history [and] the heritage of America for everybody,” Gretchen said.

During her presentation, she had everyone get into groups and assigned them a position with park services. Each group had to pick out a group of objects that represent the job from a table at the front of the room. Examples of jobs include law enforcement, maintenance, lifeguards  and administration.

Gretchen explained what responsibilities came with each job. She encouraged audience members to look into a job with park services and offered tips about resumes and the application process.

​“If you’re easily bored, this is the kind of career you might think about,” Knapp said. “There are a lot of other skills you can build once you get into the park services.”