Inside the Yellow Boarder

Week One at National Geographic was a bit of a whirlwind. I was lucky enough to catch a ride to the downtown building on my first morning, but finding my way home on the metro was quite the experience. Two important things I learned about DC this week:

1. Metro escalators are not relaxing joyrides and if you don't keep moving you will get pushed off and wipe out everyone below you.
2. Wearing sneakers and a backpack with your formal office attire while walking about the city is completely normal and highly recommended.

Once I got those two concepts mastered I was good to go! Luckily, I made it to National Geographic in one piece and on time thanks to the extra hour I gave myself every morning to get lost on the metro, pushed off the escalators, and buy band-aides for my newly blistered feet.

I am one of 9 interns in the National Geographic Education department and we are all assigned different tasks under our own individual supervisors. I have two supervisors, Mary and Sam, who both work in Education Programs. I haven't met Sam yet, but Mary is amazing! A few months before I arrived, Mary had just started managing a new big education project called the Great Nature Project. Today, the project is still in its early stages but I'm sure you'll be hearing about it over the next couple months, and not just from me. But for now, I'll give you a little sneak preview of what the Great Nature Project is all about!

The Great Nature Project

The Great Nature Project (aka GNP) is a worldwide, weeklong celebration of biodiversity. GNP is an international initiative to get people outside and exploring the amazing world around them. Starting in September, National Geographic invites everyone and anyone with a camera to take pictures of the local wildlife in their area. Whether it's at the park, beach, or just outside your backdoor, all you have to do is snap a picture of a plant or animal you find! Once you've taken your picture(s), simply upload them to a social media site such as Twitter, Instagram or Flickr and use the hash-tag #GreatNature. We are going to then use all of these photos to create a snapshot of the world, where you can go online and see what people halfway across the globe are uploading too. If you snap a picture of an animal, add the hash-tag #animal to help us create the world's largest online photo album of animals and break a Guinness World Record! We need everyone's help to make this project come alive and spread the importance of biodiversity, conservation, and exploration around the world!

So that's the basic idea behind GNP. I'm the only intern on this project and my main job is to be part of the team that makes this baby come to life! I'd say that's a whole lot better than picking up dry cleaning and coffee, which I would have happily done just to be a tiny part of the National Geographic legacy. My work so far has basically consisted of editing website drafts and shadowing Mary at her meetings. And wow, does she have a lot of meetings. We have department meetings, team briefings, conference calls with partner organizations, meetings with NG Explores, meetings with marketing and design... we have meetings to organize meetings! My calendar is constantly full and I love it because that means I get to be a part of everything.

The unique thing I have discovered about the National Geographic organization is that they genuinely want their staff and interns to be educated and to care about the things they care about. For example, they encourage a healthy and environmentally friendly diet, so their cafeteria offers healthy alternatives and their recycling, compost, and trash systems have been perfectly set up for everyone to use. Of course, this doesn't stop me from grabbing a bag of potato chips and the occasional basket of onion rings during my lunch break, but I still consider myself very lucky to be working at a place that practices what it preaches. We are even encouraged to take time out of our workday to go and listen to lectures and presentations put together by explorers and scientists of the Society. We can sign up for classes that teach research skills and graphic design. All of these things are free and available to us at anytime. Needless to say, this is a pretty awesome place to work!

Wednesday, Mary and I went to the filming of the 25^th annual National Geographic Bee. Besides spending the entire morning watching pre-teens make me feel like my thousands of dollars of college tuition have been a complete waste, I got to witness a National Geographic tradition successfully come together.  Twenty-five years ago, the National Geographic Bee started out just like the Great Nature Project - nothing more than a big idea with a huge goal. Wednesday it celebrated its quarter of a century anniversary. This year, GNP is more of a test run, but we are hoping this initiative will grow and continue for years to come just like the Geography Bee.

If you would like to find out more information about the Great Nature Project or pre-register for the big event, please visit the following sites:


http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/great-nature-project/?ar_a=1

 

http://www.greatnatureproject.org

 

 

 

Alecia Jurado,
Environmental Science & Policy Senior
National Geographic Society Intern

 

 

Alecia Jurado
Education Programs intern at the National Geographic Society
Environmental Science and Policy BA
Senior

 

 After I was accepted into the internship program at the National Geographic Society, I noticed one particular question that kept popping up in my daily life. This question was the overly exaggerated “How in the world did you manage to get an internship THERE!?” Most of the time people walk away with a slightly less exciting answer than what they had anticipated. Most people expect me to list off a huge amount of achievements that got me into this cozy cubicle on the corner of the 2^nd floor conference room. In reality, I’m just like any other obsessed environmental student. I’m not a straight A student or a science prodigy (I got a C in chemistry my freshman year and celebrated because it meant I had passed!). The resume I submitted to National Geographic was one page long with no prior work experience in this field apart from some summer volunteer work at the Florida Aquarium. And trust me, scrubbing the slime off the stingray tank was not much of a career builder, but it did help me find my passion and it was this passion that lead me to this very specific internship.  

Ask anyone that’s ever met me and they’ll tell you what I love most in the world: the Ocean. I was the little kid that grew up sorting through seaweed on the beach while everyone else was building sandcastles. I’m the girl that will go fishing with her dad just to pick through the critters that come up as by catch in his cast net.  Yup, I’m an ocean hugger and proud!

Ever since I was little I knew I was going to be a marine biologist. Obviously it was the best career for a girl like me. It wasn’t until high school that my passion expanded beyond the ocean’s waters. While scrubbing off the slime of the stingray tanks, I would have eager kids line up to ask me questions. I loved watching their eyes widen as I showed them how Rosie (the large Southern stingray) can suck a fish right off my hand. It made my day to watch them run over to their parents and repeat the facts I had just given them. It was right there, in the middle of the slimy smelly stingray tank, that I discovered my other passion – education.

I might as well be honest with you now. I am not, nor will I ever be, a teacher. I have the utmost respect for teachers because, frankly, I don’t have the patience or energy to teach the same subject to the same bored kids day after day. But at the aquarium, I wasn’t a normal teacher. I was the cool aquarium lady who fed the stingray from her hands! The kids that came up to me genuinely wanted to hear what I had to say. They left the aquarium that day with not only knowledge, but also an appreciation for the animals they learned about. So I decided I wanted to share my love of the ocean with everyone I could. I’m talking about kids, adults, teachers, businesses, leaders – anyone who will listen.

As I got further into Environmental Science and Policy at Florida State, I gained an appreciation and love for all parts of the environment, but secretly the ocean still remained my favorite. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my degree, however when people asked me what my plans were, I could never find the perfect way to explain it. I wanted to be an ambassador of the environment, not a scientist or politician, but an educator. It was that concept that lead me to National Geographic – a 125 year old exploring, inspiring, and EDUCATING society.

So how did I get in? Well that’s simple. Like most great opportunities in life, I happened to find myself searching in the right place at the right time. I knew my family had a connection with someone who is part of the National Geographic community so I gave him my resume and he agreed to pass it along and maybe, just maybe there would be a spot that my talents could fill. Of course, it was a long shot and I didn’t get my hopes up. Most interns at the Society are geography, photography, or journalism majors - three things I know very little about. The biggest step was not being discouraged. I knew my goals were unique and I knew my strengths were specific. I wanted to find a place where they could be used. At this exact moment in time, that place happened to be National Geographic. So I just call it what it is… luck, a lot of luck.