Post #1

Dates: 4/18/15,  4/19/15, 4/29/15, 4/30/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep

Reflection: Jordan Lake State Recreation Area provides many services to the public,
like swim areas, boating areas, hiking, camping and more. The park is run and managed by the State Rangers. The customers are the general public, the park is free but you do have to pay a six dollar parking fee. My job is described as General Utility Worker, I help maintain and clean up the park along with two other high school age guys like myself.  This being the first week of my employment at Jordan Lake SRA, my time was devoted to learning what tasks I needed to complete every day. These tasks included trash and restroom management, patrolling for ground litter and minor landscaping, such as mowing, tree trimming, and weed whacking. When these tasks were completed for the time being, me and my coworkers were given odd jobs by the supervisors to keep us busy and keep the park in good shape. These odd jobs could range from clearing a drainage ditch to putting up new signs around the park.

Post #2

Dates: 5/2/15, 5/3/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep

Reflection: The atmosphere of my workplace at Jordan Lake is definitely cooperative, we all have the same tasks and work so why not complete them quicker working together. Decisions are ultimately made by the superintendent, Shedrick, but some smaller decisions a decided by the rangers that I work with. Most of the time the rangers can quickly radio Shedrick and make larger decisions much faster without having to meet up about it. The dress code for the GUW's like myself is a gray polo with the NC State Parks logo on it, blue jeans, boots, and a green baseball hat provided by Jordan Lake. The reason for wearing this in the summer is to help prevent us from getting hurt or getting ticks all over us. The work ethic really depends on the day, if we are busy they expect work to be done earlier than usual, if it is a very slow day the only expect us to get what we need to done within the span of our shift and won't really bother us about it as long as we get our work done.

Post #3

Dates: 5/9/15, 5/10/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep

Reflection:  Some things I have learned in the classroom help me while at work, such as our mock interviews. This helps me be more confident when talking to the adults I work with. Something good I learned in class was designing posters or flyers. One day I was asked if I could design a flyer for an event happening out at Jordan Lake. I accepted because I was confident using Microsoft Word to design it as I am certified in it, it was an easy task.  It would also probably help free up some other peoples time. One last thing I learned that helps me would be managing my time. It is really important to manage your time in this position.  If you work too slowly you may not get everything done, and if you work too fast you may be just waiting around for other things to do. I do wish I had learned more about working with difficult people prior to starting this internship. Some of the people I work with can be hard to get along with, but most days it's just fine.

Post #4

Dates: 5/25/15, 5/26/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep
(All Hands On Deck!)


Reflection: I didn't believe my co-workers when they told me but holidays are the hardest day of work. During Memorial Day weekend I had never seen so many people on a single beach before. I was told to get to work a little early that day to reduce my time in line, and it was ridiculous. Cars were lined up a long way down Hwy 64.  My internship has met my expectation and soared way beyond in good and bad ways. I love working outdoors, and this has affirmed by desire to become a State Park Ranger.  I was not prepared for the amount of cleaning up after others I would have to do, and the heat of working in jeans in the summer.  Some days are easy than others, but in general I feel I do have control over my job and my duties. After working on Memorial Day and seeing what was in store, I expect the same or worse of July 4th. I'm definitely going to plan better for then.

Post #5

Dates: 6/4/15, 6/6/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep


Reflection: During my internship I have been given and taught a lot, but I also feel that I have given back and did my share of work. I have done my daily duties and more each day, and I have worked and even completed a flyer that took some weight off of someone else.  This is not usually part of my job and I am proud that I was able to offer the computer skills to help out. Other things that happen at my job don't exactly make us, the workers, proud. Sometimes people feel they can get around our entrance fee by parking elsewhere and walking in and that doesn't go over well with the rangers. One day a couple of ladies walked by us while we were trimming some bushes in front of the ticket booth. They just completely pass it up and keep walking. The booth operator calls the ranger on-duty that day and they come down to have a chat with them. The ladies thought if they parked at the main office they could walk down to the Seaforth entrance and avoid the fee.  In general they were told to go back to their car, either leave or come back with money. They decided to leave anyways and we went about our business. This showed me that some people may do strange and illogical things just to not pay six dollars.

Post #6

Dates: 6/10/15, 6/11/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep


Reflection: The responsibilities given to me at the start of my internship have only changed slightly. I still have to do all my normal tasks such as cleaning and minor maintenance. One new task I have been asked to do is create some new updated signs for the parks bulletin boards. These signs said things like "No Pets Allowed on the Beach" and "No Alcohol Allowed on the Beach". The signs were made in Microsoft Word and looked very nice compared to the old signs that they had currently.  I feel as though that my supervisor trusts me more and lets me do more interesting tasks because she knows that I can do them. I hope that my supervisor continues to allow me to do these more interesting tasks.

Post #7

Dates: 6/27/15, 6/28/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep

Reflection: Some days at Jordan Lake are much more interesting than others. One reason I wanted to intern with Park Rangers is because that is my career goal. I wanted to get a feel for what it's like as a job. A few days have been very interesting and it was pretty cool to see how the rangers dealt with it. One day some other workers and I were walking around and doing our daily tasks and a woman walked up to a group of us and told us she had a concern. She told us that her family had seen a man sitting alone at a picnic table with many different sizes of knives and machetes laid out on it. So we decided to let the rangers know. After we called them on the radio, at least five rangers showed up and one of them went to go talk to the man. They ran an I.D check and found he had a couple different previous arrests for assault and similar accounts. Although he wasn't breaking any laws because he had no guns, they did advise him to put the knives and machetes away because it scared the other people at the lake. This was really interesting to me to see how all the rangers respond and come together when someone thinks or sees a possible threat. I like how the rangers work together to make the park a safe and fun place for everyone. This helped assure me of my path for college.

Post #8

Dates: 6/30/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep

Reflection: During my internship I have learned many thing about the job I want and what it's going to take to get there. I still believe I want to become a State Park Ranger like the men and women I work with. I have also learned about all the different situations they go through on a daily basis. One situation that was out of the ordinary was a crash that occurred one evening. Myself and another worker were on our way to drop off the dump truck we used that day and go to our cars to go home. That day we had gotten a lot of rain and it was still raining hard when we were headed back. We went around a tight corner and the dump truck went off the edge of the road and started to slide and hit a tree. I was on the passenger side of the truck that was smashed against the tree.  I had to get out on the drivers side.  This was an awful, unfortunate, and big life experience. It is highly important to be smart and watchful when handling equipment for your job. Luckily neither I nor the driver were injured in the crash.

Post #9

Dates: 7/3/15, 7/4/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep


Reflection: During holidays at Jordan Lake it becomes very busy. These days were the most frustrating to me. People don't always seem to appreciate the work we do to keep the park nice. The amount of work that was required by the workers and myself was at least tripled. Even though these days are frustrating, we all feel very relieved and accomplished when the weekend is over, which is a nice feeling. We would always listen to music in the trucks and joke around about all the craziness. We helped each other get through the tough days. Another thing that I would say is a problem about these days is that some of our customers get very restless waiting in line. Some decide not to wait and drive right by without paying. This doesn't really go over well with our rangers. People can make your job harder sometimes, but at the end of the day it is rewarding because you know you did a good job keeping things nice, keeping the facilities safe, and staying professional and polite.

Post #10

Dates: 8/1/15, 8/2/15
Activities: General Park Maintenance, Cleaning, and Upkeep


Reflection: Over the course of my internship I've learned a lot about having a job and many other things as well. I have learned what it takes to become a park ranger and what they have to deal with in their everyday lives. They have to police the park, keep the facilities nice and safe, have a large knowledge of the environment they work in, and be educated about the wildlife in the area. This has been a really great experience for me because it assured me of my college and career path. During my internship I have also realized what people have to do to keep state parks up and running and it has given me a new appreciation for those people who choose it as their job. I believe that AOIT has more than prepared me to go out and get a job. Many skills that helped me included interviewing skills, teamwork skills, and some technological skills. I think that overall my internship has gone well and that I have worked up to my supervisors expectations. Even though my internship ends soon I hope that they would allow me to come back next summer if I asked.