Site search
sponsored by
Home
News
ENLARGE
Rachel Hom, 18, is working toward securing a job with the U.S. Forest Service, with a focus in public affairs.
Rachel Hom is only 18, but already she is working toward securing a job with the U.S. Forest Service — if that’s the career path she chooses.
Based in the Umpqua National Forest’s supervisor’s office in Roseburg through the Student Career Experience Program, Hom is testing the waters of public affairs. She studies journalism at the University of Oregon and will be a junior this coming school year.
Also known as SCEP (the C sounds like a K), the program provides Hom periods of career-related work in a federal agency that meets her career goals.
Hom doesn’t waste time. She’s spending the better part of this summer working on an interdisciplinary team for the Umpqua National Forest and training under the wings of Cheryl Caplan, spokeswoman for the UNF.
She’ll return next summer to complete her 14 weeks of SCEP training.
“I have a lot of education to finish with journalism, and a lot of education to finish with the (U.S.) Forest Service,” she said.
She figures she’ll eventually apply her journalism training to public affairs. After graduation, however, and pending completion of her agency training, Hom will also have a job waiting for her with the Forest Service.
“And that’s what a lot of people miss out on,” she said, referring to having a job lined up after school.
Right now, she’s learning about her opportunities with the agency. And how the Forest Service works with the public.
“I’ve learned a lot about the culture of the agency,” she said.
And with the knowledge that there’s probably one public affairs specialist for every national forest, she knows the role carries a lot of responsibility. But that’s a burden she’s willing to carry.
Hailing from Olympia, Wash., and a graduate of Capital High School, Hom had a great deal of insider knowledge about the Forest Service before she ever stepped foot inside the Umpqua’s supervisor’s office. Her parents both worked for the Forest Service at one point and met while building trails and fighting fires on the Ochoco National Forest in Central Oregon.
Born in Cordova, Alaska, Hom said she would like to go back one day and work for the Chugach National Forest. She has also lived in Winthrop, Wash., and Twin Falls, Idaho.
“I guess I have lived in Forest Service towns,” she said.
Within the Umpqua, Hom has worked on maintaining a database for the interdisciplinary team she’s on, Caplan said.
Sometimes her work can also involve shredding piles of paper at a time.
“She’s been very cheerful about doing projects that I know she wasn’t hopeful to do,” Caplan said.
And she’s not afraid to make suggestions for projects she thinks would be interesting to young people.
“She’s very sharp and she has some great ideas,” Caplan said.
Hom sees herself as part of the next generation that works within the Forest Service, since she said it tends to rotate in shifts. “That’s exactly what’s happening.”
Her time spent in Roseburg has been the most time she’s spent in southern Oregon, but she said she’s a fan of the Half Shell concert series and especially enjoyed Pink Martini and The Wailers when they came to town.
She also enjoys the waterfalls and lakes of the Umpqua forest, and recently went swimming in Crater Lake after hiking toward the bottom of the Cleetwood Trail.
There, she said, is a 15- or 20-foot jump from a ledge at the lake near the boat landing.
“I like interacting with nature,” she said.
In the meantime, during the week, Hom will stay busy gathering data from timber cruisers or soils scientists, even putting out the occasional press release, before she goes back to school. It’s a pace, she admits, that’s putting her on the fast track for a career at her young age.
“Most of my friends don’t even know what they want to do,” she said.
• You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@newsreview.info.
Based in the Umpqua National Forest’s supervisor’s office in Roseburg through the Student Career Experience Program, Hom is testing the waters of public affairs. She studies journalism at the University of Oregon and will be a junior this coming school year.
Also known as SCEP (the C sounds like a K), the program provides Hom periods of career-related work in a federal agency that meets her career goals.
Hom doesn’t waste time. She’s spending the better part of this summer working on an interdisciplinary team for the Umpqua National Forest and training under the wings of Cheryl Caplan, spokeswoman for the UNF.
She’ll return next summer to complete her 14 weeks of SCEP training.
“I have a lot of education to finish with journalism, and a lot of education to finish with the (U.S.) Forest Service,” she said.
She figures she’ll eventually apply her journalism training to public affairs. After graduation, however, and pending completion of her agency training, Hom will also have a job waiting for her with the Forest Service.
“And that’s what a lot of people miss out on,” she said, referring to having a job lined up after school.
Right now, she’s learning about her opportunities with the agency. And how the Forest Service works with the public.
“I’ve learned a lot about the culture of the agency,” she said.
And with the knowledge that there’s probably one public affairs specialist for every national forest, she knows the role carries a lot of responsibility. But that’s a burden she’s willing to carry.
Hailing from Olympia, Wash., and a graduate of Capital High School, Hom had a great deal of insider knowledge about the Forest Service before she ever stepped foot inside the Umpqua’s supervisor’s office. Her parents both worked for the Forest Service at one point and met while building trails and fighting fires on the Ochoco National Forest in Central Oregon.
Born in Cordova, Alaska, Hom said she would like to go back one day and work for the Chugach National Forest. She has also lived in Winthrop, Wash., and Twin Falls, Idaho.
“I guess I have lived in Forest Service towns,” she said.
Within the Umpqua, Hom has worked on maintaining a database for the interdisciplinary team she’s on, Caplan said.
Sometimes her work can also involve shredding piles of paper at a time.
“She’s been very cheerful about doing projects that I know she wasn’t hopeful to do,” Caplan said.
And she’s not afraid to make suggestions for projects she thinks would be interesting to young people.
“She’s very sharp and she has some great ideas,” Caplan said.
Hom sees herself as part of the next generation that works within the Forest Service, since she said it tends to rotate in shifts. “That’s exactly what’s happening.”
Her time spent in Roseburg has been the most time she’s spent in southern Oregon, but she said she’s a fan of the Half Shell concert series and especially enjoyed Pink Martini and The Wailers when they came to town.
She also enjoys the waterfalls and lakes of the Umpqua forest, and recently went swimming in Crater Lake after hiking toward the bottom of the Cleetwood Trail.
There, she said, is a 15- or 20-foot jump from a ledge at the lake near the boat landing.
“I like interacting with nature,” she said.
In the meantime, during the week, Hom will stay busy gathering data from timber cruisers or soils scientists, even putting out the occasional press release, before she goes back to school. It’s a pace, she admits, that’s putting her on the fast track for a career at her young age.
“Most of my friends don’t even know what they want to do,” she said.
• You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@newsreview.info.
