07/12/2023 — Raven Patrick
An Internship with CNMA and Colorado National Monument’s National Park Service

Colorado National Monument Association (CNMA) works with the National Park Service to provide college students internship opportunities unique to the Colorado National Monument.
The National Park Service (NPS) dedicates itself to maintaining parks and monuments throughout the nation and it is through its work with friends groups like CNMA that opportunities for internships are made available. This year, I had the pleasure of taking part in their first conjunction internship where I had both NPS and CNMA duties. This combined effort offered a unique experience where I saw both the NPS interpretive ranger side as well as the fundraising and business side of CNMA. I cannot thank CNMA and the Mesa County Workforce Center enough for helping finance the internship to allow me to participate throughout the entire three-month period of the summer. What did I learn while interning, you ask? Well, let me tell you!
The NPS part of my internship had me working mostly with their interpretation programs. I helped the park rangers by delivering their geology talk, but I also created my own “up close and personal” display. I was excited to create something more closely reflecting my background: insects! With me beginning a masters in entomology in August, I do not turn down any opportunity to talk about insects. With that in mind, I created a display that not only talked about the local insects at the monument, but the invasive species that plague it as well. This display even included insects from my own personal insect collection to help the visitors get an up-close view of some creepy-crawlies!
I spent the other half of my internship time working as a CNMA team member. This provided a unique opportunity to see the financial support side of the Colorado National Monument. My time with them mainly focused on helping in the visitor center gift shop. It was also through CNMA that I learned about the wonderful community engagement events CNMA puts together. These include yoga and mental health classes, special talks from scientists, and events with local restaurants and breweries!
There were a few tasks I worked on for both CNMA and the NPS, including creating posts for their social media accounts and learning how to write grants. I had previous experience working with a scientific organization and their social media accounts, so it was great being able to apply my experience to NPS and CNMA social media. The lessons on how to write grants was a personal request that the NPS and CNMA were very helpful in fulfilling. I had always wanted to learn how to write grants as I knew they would be an important part of my future. CNMA and the NPS provided opportunities to watch grant-writing workshops, showed me past examples of grants they had applied to, and even let me assist in applying for a NPS grant! It was very informative to observe and experience grant writing, and I could not have accomplished it without the help of CNMA and the NPS.
My time with the NPS and CNMA has been an incredibly rewarding experience. It has taught me how to successfully create interpretation programs for visitors, how the monument is supported financially, how to utilize social media for public lands, how to create grant proposals, and most importantly, it has given me many new friends and mentors. I know this experience will go with me in my future endeavors, and I could not have done it without the NPS and CNMA.