Haub School Alumni Highlights

April, 2024

Ashton Hooker (she/her)

Degree: Master's of Arts in Communication and Environment & Natural Resources, 2019

Location: Gardiner, MT

 

What position are you currently in?

“I'm a Digital Communications Specialist for the National Park Service here in Yellowstone.”

 

What do you do in this position?

“It can be a wide variety of things, but anything in digital communications I can work with. For the most part, it is working on the Park website and all its social media channels. I also do some work with the public affairs folks. Working with reporters, doing media events, and a little bit of graphic design. We're actually starting a new project by venturing into podcasting pretty soon.”

 

 

How did you get there?

“I always thought it would be neat to work for the National Park Service, but I didn't know how to get in. I applied a lot over the years and never really got anywhere. I came across this internship program, now called Scientists in Parks. I was selected for an internship here in Yellowstone right after I graduated with my Master's from the University of Wyoming in 2019. It's a seasonal internship, but what's cool about it is once you complete your internship, you get what's called a Public Land Corps Hiring Authority, or PLC. It basically gives you a leg up for applying for permanent positions with the National Park Service. That helped me out and lead me to the position that I'm in.”

 

How did the Haub School prepare you for this career?

“One of the biggest things that drew me towards the Haub School was the fact that it was an interdisciplinary program, I knew I wanted to do something different. That's why I pursued communication and information sources. What's unique about that experience is that you have to work with people from different fields, different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different majors all at the same time in the Haub program. That helped me for this current position because I work with so many different audiences communicating science and working with scientists, reporters, congressionals, employees, and visitors. There are a lot of different perspectives to think about and communicate to different audiences.”

 

What were some of the most memorable, memorable experiences being a Haubie?

“I did a couple of field courses. One of them was in the Tetons, with Teton Science Schools for the Winter Ecology course and I had an amazing time. The other course was over the summer in the French Alps and Germany, looking at winter recreation and culture. We spent a couple of weeks over there and those experiences were awesome, obviously. It was my first time abroad too.”

 

 

Did you have any mentors or advisors at the university who played a significant role in guiding your career path?

“Two stand out in particular, one from each of the departments that I was in. For Communication & Journalism, Dr. Kristen Landreville was the one that I initially met with when I was thinking about pursuing my master's degree at the University of Wyoming. She was so welcoming and encouraging and made me feel good about the decision to come to university in the first place. She helped me throughout my graduate schooling and my thesis, I loved having her encouragement and support.

At the Haub School, it was Courtney Carlson, she led us on the French Alps course and had her as a professor in a couple of classes. She was also really encouraging and supportive during that time.”

 

Describe the transition from being a student to becoming an alumni of the Haub school, how has your relationship with the school changed?

“I didn't move too far away. I'm just outside of Wyoming, but still pretty close. As I work for a park that's mostly in Wyoming, we have a lot of relationships with State of Wyoming folks. I've had a couple of opportunities to connect and work with people in the Haub School through my current position, which has been neat. One of those was in 2022 during the Park’s 150th. The Haub School held a conference and symposium in Cody, Wyoming. I got to speak on a panel at the event, meet some current Haubies, and see some former friends and professors. Those kinds of events keep popping up!

Just from my experience, transitioning from a student to trying to get a job afterward with the National Park Service is pretty tough. There are a lot of sneaky avenues to give yourself a leg up and to get a job in the National Park Service that a lot of people might not know about. I have to be honest, when I did my internship through the Scientists in Parks program, I didn't even know that it was an avenue to a permanent position, I just thought it sounded cool and I wanted to do it. Looking into organizations that hire interns post internship in National Parks is a great place to start. The National Park Service does a good job of compiling a list of all those organizations, different nonprofits, and partnerships that they have that host internship programs throughout the park service. They hire multiple times, every year, it could be summer, it could be winter. ”

 

 

What advice would you give to a current student or recent graduate?

“Being a student, there are so many opportunities that come available to you that you don't get when you're done with school and you're no longer a student. Take some cool courses, meet all kinds of people, and network. One of my goals was to squeeze every ounce of opportunity I could get while I was a student. I felt like I did that. It makes me happy to feel that way, so that'd be my little ounce of advice.”

 

Any final thoughts?

“Since coming from being a student to now working for the Park Service, there is a need for several folks to get into this type of work. There are a lot of people retiring as that generation moves out of the workforce. I'm sure other land management agencies are the same too. I'd love to be a resource for people who maybe have questions or want to reach out and see what it even is like working at a park like Yellowstone or working for the National Park Service in general.” 

 

“I’m a Haubie because I have a love for the environment, our human relationship to the environment, how we interact with it, and how we can steward it for future generations. That's important to me and was instilled in me during my time at the Haub School.”

Ashton's story has been edited for length and clarity. All image credits go to Ashton.