Better understanding risks in national parks, and how visitors relate to those risks, in theory can lower the number of injuries those visitors incur. That's why the National Park Service and the Student Conservation Association are studying park visitors.

This coming summer the NPS and SCA will again offer the Public Risk Management Internship Program. This program provides opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students with skills in behavioral sciences, injury epidemiology, communication, wilderness and recreational risk management, and/or wilderness medicine to support injury prevention efforts in our parks.

The goal of this internship program is to strengthen park efforts to prevent unintentional injuries such as drowning, fall injuries, hypothermia, dehydration, heat-related illnesses, carbon monoxide poison, animal bites or attacks, trauma from crashes in cars, boats, bikes and other forms of transportation, among many other injuries that occur in parks. At the same time, interns gain hands on experience, may receive school credit and/or fulfill graduate practicum requirements, and spend the summer working at a national park.

Public Risk Management interns are placed in parks throughout the country for 3-6 months to assist with specific park projects to enhance injury prevention and control efforts. Some interns engage in projects that require information gathering, data management, and/or data analysis. Or, they may work on more in-the-field assignments would require wilderness roving, educating visitors, and/or supplementing EMS or SAR teams, for example. 

Supervisors at the park mentor the interns. The Public Risk Management Program staff provide on-going technical support to the park and intern throughout the entire internship in areas such as survey design and development, evaluation, data collection and analysis, and report preparation.

Before placement in the park unit, interns will undergo an intensive, highly specialized, week-long training at Prince William Forest National Park in Triangle, Virginia in June. Topics covered will include an overview of the NPS, risk management, injury epidemiology, data collection and analysis, legal issues, behavior and risk communication, and wilderness medicine essentials. Courses will be taught by highly qualified NPS staff, SCA staff, and experts from the field.

Last year’s pilot proved so successful, that NPS decided to launch the internship program full scale.

“So many new doors have opened themselves to me this summer, from future job opportunities to building upon a new set of interpersonal tools,” said Dimitri Antonelis-Lapp, a student at Evergreen State College and an intern at Olympic National Park in the 2009 pilot program. This year, the program has 19 positions available for students.

For more information about the internship program, please contact Gabrielle Fisher, Public Risk Program Specialist, at [email protected].