Hi everyone! Welcome to my first little blog post updating you about the life of an intern here at BCCDKY! This is the first time I have ever written anything like this, so bear with me while I learn how this should go over the next few months.
My first few weeks at the Conservation District have been hectic to say the least. I spent the majority of the first week learning the names of what at times felt like an endless number of new coworkers. The rest of the week was spent touring Boone County and getting familiar with the areas in which we work.
So far, I have found that we do a lot at BCCDKY to help clean up our communities. I, along with Megan and Susan from the Conservation District, volunteered to help out at the Hazardous Household Waste Cleanup Day. This event was massive, and I spent most of my morning and early afternoon trying to make sure no one – including myself – got run over. People from all over NKY dropped off everything from old paint to even older televisions (seriously, I saw some ancient televisions). I still don’t know how much waste was collected at that event, but I know that over 2,700 cars dropped stuff off throughout the day!
The very next time I came in to work we received a call from a community member wondering if we could come clean up trash from a small stream next to his house. We said yes, and that ended up being a long and exhausting day. We ended up hauling seven garbage bags full of trash, 5 or 6 tires, and even a patio umbrella stand from this stream. A note to anyone who wants to do trash cleanups: prepare to be tired and smelly afterward and expect some muscle aches the next day. However, it is rewarding work and you can actually see the difference you have made over the course of the day.
One thing I have to share about this internship is the amount of training I am receiving. I have already gone through some GIS program training, CPR and wilderness first aid class, and daily quizzes on tree identification (thanks Megan!). These trainings are awesome for me professionally. I can’t imagine not being able to use this training – which I’m getting completely free – further along in my career.
I have no idea how long this little blog should run, so I will stop before I bore everyone. In the upcoming days and weeks, I will be working on animal tracking and helping some girl scouts get some outdoor badges, removing some invasive honeysuckle from a local park, and starting my super-secret super-awesome internship project! I will be sure to keep updating this as I go along, and please let me know if you have any recommendations to improve this blog or if you have any specific questions about what I have been up to!
– Kevin
