RSB, Grand Canyon 2024
Spring Break 2024, myself and 8 other McNair students plus Texas Tech Staff spent our time in Arizona at the Grand Canyon National Park. We worked alongside Park Ranger, Todd Nelson, and the National Park Service. During our time at the canyon, we focused on volunteering around the National Park to further assist people on navigating their way around while also answering any of their questions. I felt that it was important for us to be at the volunteering because without any volunteers, the visitors center gets very packed very quickly and then people spend 30 minutes waiting in line to ask where they parked their car or how to go to a certain view point. The impact this trip had on the park service was so significant that during our time volunteering we interacted and helped over 4,000 people!
When we first got to the Canyon, because it was all our first times being at the Grand
Canyon,
Todd had us get into a single file line, close our eyes, and then walked us to the
rim point of the canyon where we would line up against the railing and wait to be
counted down before we could open our eyes. As soon as Todd said to open our eyes,
my perspective changed. I didn't know what to expect and I honestly wasn't expecting
much, but when I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, I was immediately shocked.
It's always something you see in pictures and movies but seeing it in real life made
me realize how much more beautiful it was.
Our week consisted of Monday – Friday in which Monday was our training day to prep for volunteering and then Tuesday was go time with our first day. Wednesday was our free day, Thursday we volunteered and then Friday was our closing on volunteering for the week and the day we got sworn in as Junior Rangers! Volunteering at the Grand Canyon was such a unique experience because we got to meet so many people from all over the world. We met people from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, France, Switzerland, Germany, Palestine, Brazil, Israel, and even local TTU students and alumni! It was cool to be able to share this experience with not only our community, but other people who were all at the same place, same time, and yet us as volunteers were able to make an impact on their journeys.
One of my most memorable experiences was how fast our group of students connected. I came on this trip only knowing one friend, and now I am leaving a week later with 9. The ability we had to connect so fast on a surface level, but also on that deeper/personal level is what I felt gave us the ability to work even better as teams when we were set out to our volunteering spots. Even outside of volunteering we spent a lot of time in the main house living room playing card games, board games and/or talking about the most random things. There was one night me, Taylin, Tiana, Gabriel, Oliver, Nathan and Joe went over to one of the other cabins and played monopoly since we knew it would get loud and didn't want to wake anyone sleeping in the main cabin. It was quite the experience, we had Joe playing his keyboard in the background, some people were singing, then the rest of us were attempting to play monopoly while making up our own rules #robbingthebank (monopoly only).
Throughout this trip there was always something we were laughing about. One story in particular was during our first night making dinner. As dinner is being prepared, there's a small group in the kitchen helping prep and cook the food and then there was a smaller group of us in the living room hanging out. While dinner was being made, there was a quick discovery that the kitchen in fact did not have a vent to clear out any smoke accumulating from the food and therefore it triggered the fire alarm to go off. This alarm was blasting so loud I'm pretty sure the whole neighborhood could hear it. As this alarm is going off, we have Aurelia and Nathan waving cookie sheets and/or a towel near the detector to clear the air. Then we start opening all the windows in the kitchen, living room, and even opened the front door to create our own DIY ventilation system. Don't fear, there wasn't any fire, but let's just say from then on, we always made sure to cook dinner with the windows cracked for better air flow.
On the last couple days of our trip, the weather had a change and it started to snow. The snow was cool to see when looking over and into the canyon. Even while out volunteering I was mesmerized by the snowfall because I hadn't seen anything like that before. While it was snowing, we were still outside volunteering and I really appreciated Aurelia (our TTU staff), Johanne, and Debbie (park volunteers) for always walking around to each of our groups and checking in on us to make sure we had hand warmers, toe warmers, and enough layers on to stay warm. Everyone from our TTU staff to Todd and his band all helped to put together an amazing trip and it was a successful comeback after the distribution of Covid from the past.
This Alternative Break was more than just volunteering at the Grand Canyon. We got to listen in on a speaker who taught us about Native/Indigenous cultures, their nature, the wildlife and fire prevention as well as possible job opportunities available at the park.
With being a psychology major, I found that I could use a lot of what I learned during this trip in my professional career. While volunteering around the canyon and helping people the best I could, it motivated me to continue working toward my goals and passion of becoming a psychologist. The ability to be knowledgeable enough to further assist and provide guidance through someone's journey is a way I can put this in perspective of my future practice by providing my best services to aid clients through their personal and mental journeys. If I wanted, I could even work as a Mental Health Counselor at a National Park once I complete my education.
This was one of my favorite and memorable spring break trips I've had so far. I'm glad I decided to take the leap and sign up for it. This was something I was contemplating about if I should go or if I should spend my time at home, but I am grateful I chose to go. If you have this opportunity, I would definitely take advantage of it if you can. I got to meet so many cool people and this group was very fun to be around including the all the staff who came along the trip. The last day of this trip was very bittersweet. Although some of us were ready to get back to Lubbock, we still spent our last moments having fun. For example, on the drive back, the group of us in the van had a Crazy 8 game going on on our phones and it became our source of entertainment for a little while. Once we came back to Lubbock, we unloaded, said our goodbyes, and that was the end of the alternative break for 2024.
This trip made a positive impact on me because it allowed me to better connect with this group of people but also those who were complete strangers to me. It also allowed me to step further outside my comfort zone, which is something I have slowly been working towards. Throughout my time at the Grand Canyon, I was reminded that there's more to life than what meets the eye. Even though something may not be what you expect, life can surprise you. Like previously mentioned I didn't know what to expect from this trip, but it definitely made me better understand that I am on the right path both personally and academically.
