Spreading My Wings
Guest blogger and Hispanic Access Foundation intern, Maribel Juarez is soaring to new heights as an environmental steward and passionate conservationists. Follow our interns all summer as they share their conservation stories from the field!
Growing up in Bridgeton, NJ, I had always envisioned myself becoming someone with a title. What title you ask? Easy, a doctor. I knew I wanted to become something meaningful to the world. While I discovered becoming a doctor was not a fit for me, I found happiness in science and I focused my energy in a new direction. The environment.
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I had always been an advocate for the environment. Being involved in environmental clubs, doing cleanups and even outreaching to my fellow peers about the importance of conserving energy. Realizing in a young age that there is something that is changing our planet, for the worse. I was fortunate to realize this change in profession just in time to apply for this internship and blessed enough to take part in it. I am very thankful for the Hispanic Access Foundation and U.S. Fish & Wildlife for giving me this opportunity.The opportunity to spread my wings and find my path in life. To meet amazing people I would never thought of running into in this lifetime.
The women in all the fields that I have come across during this internship are unbelievably amazing. You, are on the reason why the little girl in me is here. Reaching out and taking a chance on something I deeply care about. And for that THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. The things I have witnessed and became part of in this internship vary in many things. From horseshoe surveying late in the night in Cape May, NJ to distinguishing different trees species for a restoration of forests across Bombay Hook’s National Refuge in Delaware. I have done the unimaginable for a Mexican-American girl from Bridgeton, NJ. And I know there is more to come.
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My goal for this summer is to at least have an idea of what profession I want to be in. In addition, I aspire to bring more attention to conserving the environment. With Latino Conservation Week around the corner I will have the chance to do so. I will let you know what I have in mind for that week in the near future.Until then, I hope you would join me in this journey, of me spreading my wings and learning how to fly. Eventually inspiring others to do the same.
