{"id":61,"date":"2020-03-21T18:17:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T22:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/2020\/03\/21\/blog-post-1-introduction-new-beginnings\/"},"modified":"2020-03-21T18:17:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T22:17:00","slug":"blog-post-1-introduction-new-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/2020\/03\/21\/blog-post-1-introduction-new-beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post #1: Introduction\/New Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
Good morning\/afternoon\/evening (whenever\/wherever you are reading this) to all NPS employees, associates, current\/future ProRangers, or National Park lovers in general. My name is Dylan Stephens. I\u2019m currently a Senior at Temple University and belong to Cohort 7 of the ProRanger Program. This is my first time writing a blog (I had to look up the meaning of a blog to convey the proper information) but I\u2019m hoping to improve as time goes on. After driving across this great country two separate times and traveling across the world, I\u2019ve come to realize a few things:<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
1.    <\/span><\/span><\/span>The United States of America has some of the most unique and beautiful places in the entire world.<\/span><\/div>\n
2.    <\/span><\/span><\/span>No matter where you go in this country, there will be a National Park somewhere nearby to explore. This allows you to travel across the country with an experience and journey in mind by stopping at these parks instead of driving with no plan and only the end destination in mind.<\/span><\/div>\n
3.    <\/span><\/span><\/span>If you visit any of the National Parks in the U.S., they will be some of the most memorable moments of your life.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
After five years of service in the military, I came to Temple University with an unclear path of my future and was unsure of what career path I intended to follow. Coming from a family that has a history in the law enforcement community, I knew I wanted something that had at least a hint of law enforcement capabilities but something in me required more, something unique. From the first time ever hearing about the ProRanger Program, and the fact that the National Park Service had Rangers that were federally recognized law enforcement officers, I realized this was an opportunity I could not pass up. This law enforcement aspect as well as the other paths you can take within the NPS is something I knew was special. What I have learned about the NPS and the experiences I have gained from the ProRanger Program have been nothing but amazing so far, and I\u2019m excited to see what the next step of my journey has in store for me: the internship.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
No matter where I end up for my internship, I will be excited to have the opportunity to experience new things, learn and grow as a person, and appreciate the ins and outs of the National Park Service that make everything run. When people go to a park, including myself, they don\u2019t consider what makes the park operate the way it does. During my internship, it\u2019s going to be an interesting opportunity to see the various jobs and what they do specifically to create the National Park experience.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Thank you for reading and I will keep you posted about where I\u2019m at in my current journey!<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
-ProRanger Dylan Stephens<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning\/afternoon\/evening (whenever\/wherever you are reading this) to all NPS employees, associates, current\/future ProRangers, or National Park lovers in general. My name is Dylan Stephens.…<\/p>\n

Continue readingBlog Post #1: Introduction\/New Beginnings<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,33,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15","category-dylan-stephens","category-new-river-gorge-nr","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Paul Paire","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/author\/paire\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/prorangerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}