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