It has been a year since environmental interpreter Karlyn Grafals Nieves became part of the Para La Naturaleza (PLN) team. Prior to this experience, Grafals Nieves was a teaching assistant at the Mayagüez Campus at the University of Puerto Rico until, using the platform of Opportunities of Conservation Opportunity (CO), was able to apply for a position involving environmental conservation.
Garden work of the Sembrando Regresamos project with students from Casa de Niños at the Profa. Juana Rosario Montessori School in Aguada.
“My first motivation for choosing this job was because I volunteered with Para la Naturaleza. Then I became the organization's first environmental interpreter for the Western Region,” said Grafals Nieves.
She explained that since joining the PLN team as a volunteer, she has gained a lot of experience in integrating society into conservation initiatives. With this she has been able to offer numerous workshops to elementary school and university students.
“Connecting with volunteers is special. Supporting other organizations, such as Conservation Opportunity and Coco PR, you get a lot of experiences with different audiences and projects in environmental conservation,” stated Grafals Nieves.
Since starting as an environmental interpreter, Grafals Nieves has supported the Centros Resilientes de Plenitud and the Bucarabón Foundation, both of which are located in the west of the island.
“I applied twice. I didn't apply to many positions because I was in the process of completing my master's degree. However, I had initially applied for a position for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), and this one I first saw in Linkedin and then on Instagram (CO). But then I saw the Para la Naturaleza application and I applied to that one too. From both applications they called me, Para La Naturaleza called me first, and since I already volunteered, I chose that one,” said Grafals Nieves.
Planting of native coastal trees with volunteers from the community group CocoPR at Poza de Teodoro in Isabela.
In addition to the environmental interpretation experiences he has had, Grafals Nieves supports PLN's western region on the administrative side.
“We have also supported Conservación Costera Puerto Rico (CoCoPR) in mangrove restoration and reforestation activities on the coast of Isabela. We have the Sembrando Project and we are back with the New School Institute (INE), where we accompany Montessori schools in garden projects,” stated Grafals Nieves.
Upon learning of the environmental interpreter's success, CO's founder, Fabiola Torres, decided to share a statement for anyone actively seeking job opportunities in the field of environmental conservation.
“We are very happy and proud that we have achieved this. We have not heard of many people who have been accepted in a position, as Karlyn was, but that does not mean that they do not exist, so we encourage people who have received positions through our publications to contact us because we want to hear from you and share your story and encourage others to dare to apply for those positions without fear,” stated Torres.
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If you would like to apply for a job position that has to do with nature conservation, you can do so through Conservation Opportunity's social networks (Facebook, Instagram y Linkedln) and by the Opportunities of the website.