A summer internship at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, N.Y., perfectly combined Kayla Lynch’s interests in writing and conservation.
As the head intern, Lynch ’20 directed other interns; edited the website; edited and helped create a newsletter for children; and assisted with ground maintenance, public programs, feeding the wolves and more.
She says the favorite part of her job was helping out with a “Sleeping with the Wolves” program, during which visitors are allowed to spend the night in a tent near the wolves.
“What I really enjoyed—and this is surprising to me in hindsight—was meeting and teaching people about the wolves. We got some [interesting] characters that came by, and the s’mores section of the night was always a chance to talk about and promote the center,” she says.
She also had plenty of chances to hone her writing and editing skills.
“The greatest lesson I took away from the editing job was the importance of audience,” says Lynch, adding that she discovered this when switching between editing the website and editing the newsletter for children, which was also written by children.
“I had to take a step back and remember the audience, and the fact that it was written by a 10-year-old,” she says.
The internship inspired Lynch to add an environmental studies major to her creative writing major and history minor.
“I wanted to get into the conservation field too, but I wasn’t the best at science. I thought I’d do environmental studies, which is a bit of everything with a focus on policy,” she says.
After graduation, Lynch hopes to be a published author and to continue working in the conservation field.
