My Initial Experience with Park Pride

This semester I have secured an internship with Park Pride, a park maintenance and beautification organization that operates with the Parks and Recreation Department of Atlanta. When I first was recruited, my internship coordinator, Lauren King, (who is lovely in every sense of the word) emphasized that the skills I’ve developed throughout pursuing an English degree at GSU would be most valuable to the work I would be asked to do in my time at Park Pride. Before I begin to discuss my responsibilities, and my experience undertaking them so far, allow me to describe my first day at the Park Pride office. On January 28th, I made my way downtown, following Lauren’s careful instructions to go up to the third floor of the Parks and Rec building, where she would meet me. After we had made our introduction, Lauren showed me my new desk, which was very quaint and topped with a welcome note placed especially for me, as well as a Park Pride sticker which I fashioned to my school laptop immediately. Afterward, Lauren introduced me to everyone in the Park Pride office (all equally wonderful individuals), and soon after I followed everyone downstairs to attend their weekly board meeting in which various projects were discussed, and the agenda for the week was established. The rest of the day consisted of Park Pride’s tech specialist Marlene, providing me with my new work laptop, guiding me through Park Pride’s tech interface, and having me create several passwords to secure any work I may do in and out of the office. In general, it was a most wonderful welcome, with the highlight being how friendly and pleasant the office atmosphere was, which naturally made me very excited to begin my work with the organization. On the second week and second day in the office, Lauren provided me with a couple of projects to begin work on soon. The project I am most thrilled to begin working on however is the workshop they have asked me to plan as one of my final projects for the internship semester. One of the ideas I have proposed so far is a “Parks and Poetry” workshop in which participants can learn about the historic literary connections between parks, nature, and poetry. Overall, my initial experience with Park Pride has been a positive one, and very encouraging in terms of the opportunities and rich experience awaiting me throughout the semester.