My name is Emma Ellsworth, and I graduated in 2022 from the UVA Political and Social Thought Program with a minor in history. The History Department at UVA offered some of my favorite classes throughout college, particularly classes about the Civil War. In the summer of 2021, I had the opportunity to intern at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park through the Nau Center for Civil War History. My experience with the National Park Service (NPS) and the Nau Center internship has shaped both who I am and what I want to do in life.

At Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, I worked primarily at the Stonewall Jackson Death Site. I provided interpretation to visitors with various interests – from people just taking a break from I-95 traffic to dedicated Civil War history buffs. The Death Site could be challenging at times because of its remote location and its history as the site where a Confederate general died, but working there taught me so much about how to have difficult yet important conversations. Visitors came in with a wide array of perspectives on the Civil War, and while we sometimes had different historical interpretations, I challenged myself to lead with curiosity.

I found that when you start by asking questions and make people feel heard, it opens the door for more productive conversations. I had many meaningful conversations with visitors about history and Civil War memory, and it was always great to see someone leave the Death Site excited to learn more from a book I suggested or a primary document that we discussed. I realized the important role that rangers play in making information more accessible, opening space for important discourse, and encouraging visitors to take what they learned with them into their own lives. I enjoyed serving the public at the Death Site, and I was eager to find a way to continue serving after college.

After graduation, I joined the Teach for America corps, because I wanted to provide mentorship and a quality education to children in under-resourced schools. I taught fourth and fifth grades in a low-income public school in North Charleston, South Carolina. Many of my students were Gullah Geechee, an African American heritage group in the low-country regions of the Deep South. My time studying politics and American history gave me some insight into their cultural context, but I still had much more to learn. North Charleston faced tremendous challenges, as many areas had not been fully desegregated until the late 1980s. The legacies of slavery and Jim Crow still affected the lives of my students and their families. Gun violence, mass incarceration, abuse, extreme poverty, homelessness, lack of infrastructure, foster care, early mortality, and severe trauma touched all of my students’ lives in some way. In addition to the ways trauma manifested in the classroom, many of my students also struggled academically because our curriculum was not culturally relevant.

I sought to empower my students through education and knowledge of Black history. I used what I learned in my history classes and my Nau Center internship to find resources and create engaging content for my students. I knew my perspective was limited as a white woman, so I asked my Black co-teachers for advice and guidance in creating culturally-relevant lessons. My co-teacher and I compiled supplemental pieces about Black history to read and discuss in class, and we collected books about Black Excellence to send home with our students. It was quite rewarding to see how much more engaged and excited they were when we talked about history and empowerment.

Many of my students did not have access to educational opportunities outside of school, so I worked to plan field trips to educational sites around Charleston. On one of our field trips, we visited Fort Moultrie. While we were there, I had an opportunity to talk to the rangers about how I could work for the National Park Service while teaching. The National Park Service still held a special place in my heart, and I longed to find a way to get involved in some capacity. I learned at Fredericksburg that the NPS has some of the kindest, most genuine employees, and at the time, I was struggling to find friends as a post-grad living in a new city. I discovered I could volunteer in my free time, and I spent the next year working at Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie. I had a fantastic time talking with visitors about the start of the Civil War, and I made some life-long friendships with the rangers at Fort Sumter. Although teaching had good moments, it was admittedly quite physically and emotionally taxing. I started to lose myself, and the rangers at Fort Sumter helped me through some difficult times. I yearned to return to the National Park Service full-time, and they helped me with my application. I got a job at Grand Canyon National Park, and I decided to take a risk and move across the country on a journey of self-rediscovery.

I wanted my summer to be a time of adventure and healing, and working at the Grand Canyon has allowed me to do both. While the canyon gets quite hot and busy in the summer, I have such amazing bosses and coworkers who make it worth it. They genuinely care about their jobs and the people they work with. My bosses are committed to providing a safe workplace, not just physically, but also psychologically. Having such a supportive environment was something I really needed after teaching, and I am so grateful to my workgroup at the Grand Canyon for giving me a space to be myself and to heal. Grand Canyon National Park is also at the forefront of workplace emotional safety, as our superintendent helped craft the 16E and reporting guidelines that help ensure a workplace free of harassment and discrimination in the federal government. Through my Grand Canyon experience, I have had the opportunity to learn more about systemic issues facing Indigenous tribes in the West, such as water and land rights. I have also had a lot of time to reflect out here and to talk to our superintendent (a former U.S. Solicitor General). I have concluded that I want to pursue law and one day work as a solicitor for the Department of the Interior. My history and politics classes, work at historic sites, and first-hand experiences have illuminated deep systemic issues in America, and I have come to understand the law as an important vehicle for change. Historic sites and the National Park Service will always hold a special place in my heart, and I will continue to frequent them and collect all of the stamps for my NPS passport book. I sincerely hope that the next generation of Nau Center interns can have such rewarding experiences.