My past five months working at the Redding BLM office has taught me a lot. The program gave me a goal to achieve within a certain amount of time but also gave me freedom in ways to achieve that goal. I believe I have grown professionally and personally from this experience.

The SOS program had many advantages. It gave me a chance to reach out and make connections to other agencies and people. It also gave me a chance to be in charge of my own project. Being able to accomplish something professionally gave me confidence in myself and my work skills. The program gave a lot of guidance to help me when I had confusion about certain tasks. The office I was in could not give me guidance at points to certain tasks, I was glad to receive guidance on the CBG side of the program. Other perks of the program were being able to explore places and different habitat types. Spending the summer outside gave me opportunities to see what the land communities were like and being able to understand the ecosystems better.

Some qualities that I did not like about the program were it lacked a purpose for the collections and the BLM was lacking knowledge in the program. I felt this because I do not see a purpose for the collections if they are not going to restoration projects. I believe that the program would be more helpful if it was only used if the BLM office had some sort of restoration project going on and need seed to grow. The BLM office was lacking knowledge in the program but they were still very helpful and eager to help me out in any way they could and for that I am grateful.

Over all the experience was nice and gave me an opportunity to grow professionally and personally. I would recommend this job to other people interested in similar job qualities.

–Amanda Weiss, BLM Redding Field Office