03 May Who’s This Guy -Ricardo Rodriguez

Hello y’all, my name is Ricardo Rodriguez and I’m the new Education and Outreach intern for the Bureau of Land Management stationed at Yaquina Head Outstanding National Area through Environment for the Americas. As the Education and Outreach intern here, my duties vary from educating visitors about the marine wildlife at the tidepools down at beautiful Cobble Beach, using different interpretive techniques to connect visitors to the native plants, the historic Yaquina Head Light House, and much more. What I am most looking forward to during my time here is improving my skills at hearing and identifying migrant shorebirds/seabirds of this migration period.

I graduated from the University of California, Merced with a degree in Biological Sciences – Molecular and Cell Biology. During my last semester at school and briefly after I graduated, I worked as a K-12 tutor and substitute teacher in Merced California and in Los Angeles County California. There I used my knowledge in Math, Science, and Writing to explain difficult concepts to the students in different ways for them to understand. I believe that experience and those skills will help me tremendously in this role as I strive to explain different scientific and historical concepts to diverse groups of visitors.
In summer 2021 I had the amazing experience of completing a summer fellowship through Americorps and California Climate Action Corps where I was stationed at the Audubon Society’s chapter in Northeast Los Angeles. I had the opportunity to learn new skills like conducting avian point counts of the urban birds around Los Angeles, performing habitat restoration to five sites around Ernest E. Debs Park, as well as hosting my very own All About Birds Day Event for the public to learn about Los Angeles native birds and ways we can make it a safer habitat for them. This experience really sparked my interest in conservation, avian research, and the natural world itself.

During my season here at Yaquina Head there is so much I want to learn and do. I would love to become a better interpreter and steward for environmental conservation. On my days off I like to explore new hiking trails, go camping, lift weights at my local gym, and play indoor or outdoor basketball. I am extremely excited and pleased to explore and live in Newport, Oregon and meet the people here.