Jamie Cox boasts that she hiked over 100 miles this summer, not as a vacation leisure activity, but as one of her responsibilities as a ranger naturalist at Grand Teton National Park in Jackson, Wyo.
Cox, a senior in the parks and recreation program at ETSU, spent last summer as an intern in the park, where she gave tours; led nature hikes, campfire programs and museum tours; and helped visitors plan their activities during their stay.
She also took “rooves,” which she described as one of the best part of her job.
“I just went out on the trail and talked to people,” Cox said. “I answered their questions about the park, the trail, the animals and any other questions the guests had.”
Cox lived in the Grand Teton National Park for three months and earned six hours of course credit from her internship. While she was not paid for her 40-hour workweek, her housing was provided, and she received a food stipend.
Her assignments were scheduled in two-week increments in which she led at least one program a day and worked behind the desk doing research for her programs and answering visitors' questions.
But it wasn't all work and no play for Cox. She had Fridays and Saturdays off to enjoy the park. Unsurprisingly, Cox spent her free time hiking.
“(Hiking) is the thing to do there,” she said. “Mountains are the main attraction, and to get to the mountains you have to hike, not drive. You have to park your car and hike, and that is what I did.”
During her internship, her supervisors also told her to “Take a Hike!” This wasn't a reprimand for her, but a scheduled workday to go out into the park and hike the trails. These days gave her an opportunity to familiarize herself with the area and different trails. She was then able to pass her knowledge on to visitors at the park.
Her interests in working “out west” began when she was a visitor to the Grand Tetons in the summer of 2000, during the “Rocky Mountain Experience” course with Dr. Thomas E. Coates.
During the three-credit-hour course, 12 students spent three-and-a-half weeks “out west.” The first segment of the trip consisted of driving to their destinations and seeing the sights. Then, they worked two weeks on two service learning projects – one in Yellowstone and one in Grand Teton.
Cox enjoyed the experience so much that she wanted to continue working “west of the Mississippi.”
She and Coates met with Mike Nicholas, head north district naturalist at Grand Teton National Park, to inquire about the possibilities of her returning as an intern.
After Cox came back to Tennessee, she continued to e-mail Nicholas, expressing her interest in working for the National Park Service, and he eventually helped her through the application process.
“Since it is a federal job, there are lots of steps you have to take, such as finding the job number and completing the application, and I had no idea how to do that,” she said. “He walked me through the steps.'
Eventually, she landed the job.
“It was like a dream come true for me to get to go back,” she said.
Cox's dream of becoming a ranger began her junior year in high school, when she went to Roan Mountain State Park, saw a ranger walking around, and thought to herself, “That is what I want to do! That is the ideal job for me.”
Since then, Cox pursued her goal by earning an associate's degree from Northeast State Technical Community College, and then transferring to ETSU, where she started out as an environmental health major. An adviser helped her realize that the degree wouldn't suit her specific goals, and she was then directed to Coates, who introduced her to the parks and recreation management program.
Cox was also able to take her classroom learning experiences into the field. As part of the parks and recreation curriculum, she took the class “Interpretation of Natural Resources,” which helped her tremendously.
“When you go out there as an intern or as a ranger naturalist, you have a two-week intensive training, but there is so much to learn in this park that you are overwhelmed,” she said. “This class helped me focus on what I needed to learn.”
In the course of the internship, she also discovered that she wanted to incorporate other classes into her curriculum, so she added biology as a minor when she returned to ETSU.
“I saw the different classes that I would need, and realized biology would be very beneficial to me,”
Cox thinks her experience will help her when she pursues a full-time job.
“The internship has helped me get my foot in the door, which is kind of hard with the Natural Park Service, especially with the budget cutbacks and the economy,” she said. “It gave me the experience I need to further my career.”