The BYC Internship Experience

By Amelia McMillan

As a rising senior at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, I am facing the question that is all too familiar to undergrads in their final year: “What are you going to do with your life after you graduate?” This question and others similar to it are daunting to hear. With a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, the options would theoretically be broad, but I can’t help but feel as though there is no clear path. How can I find a place in the workforce that is meaningful to me? What does that place look like? There is pressure to secure a future, to find a profitable career path, but also to do what you love and what makes you happy. These conflicting messages, paired with affordable housing shortages and employers’ expectations of previous experience/skills prior to hiring, make entering the workforce a discouraging task.

Amid my internship scouring process this past winter, my love for the outdoors and desire to be in a place with ample outdoor recreation opportunities became difficult to ignore. What began as a search for psychology-related opportunities transitioned towards wilderness psychotherapy until suddenly, I was neck deep in the outdoor recreation industry. I came across Backyard Concept (BYC) through my familiarity with Granite Backcountry Alliance (GBA) and time spent backcountry skiing and adventuring in the Whites. Not knowing what to expect, I reached out to a mentor of mine, Caroline Murphy, and her partner Ben Cargill, both volunteers for GBA (Ben as a glade chief), and they graciously put me in touch with BYC’s Principal Tyler Ray.

Despite having recreated my entire life, the Outdoor Recreation Industry remained a bit of an unknown giant. Being from Rangeley, ME, home of recently reopened Saddleback Mountain, I was conscious of outdoor recreation’s critical role in rural economies, yet, I had many uncertainties about what was going on behind the scenes and knew I was entering an experience where I would have to learn on the job. The first few weeks were filled with developing new skills and expanding my knowledge of the outdoor recreation industry and before I knew it, I was crafting social media posts, putting together the weekly newsletter, writing policy memos, and assisting in planning events, including Granite Outdoor Alliance’s (GOA) annual GRANITEER outdoor lifestyle festival. Here are some my favorite summer experiences:

• Gloves to Mugs event series:

  I assisted in the planning, outreach, and execution of GOA’s Gloves to Mugs. As a combination of community trail maintenance and social networking, the Gloves to Mugs program provides young professionals, business leaders, and passionate community members a chance to work together to enhance natural community assets like trail systems, parks, and riverways. We focused on the North Country and held programs in Colebrook, Lancaster, and Gorham.

• Outdoor Recreation Industry Roundtable: After preparing policy memos on America’s Outdoor Recreation Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Farm Bill, Tyler and I attended the NH Outdoor Recreation Roundtable with Representative Chris Pappas at GOA member NEMO Equipment’s headquarters in Dover, NH. There, leaders connected to New Hampshire’s growing outdoor recreation economy discussed policy agenda priorities, a new Public Policy Fellowship and highlighted the importance of collaboration with outdoor industry partners to form a unified effort.

• Glade scouting for GBA (location TBA): Early one August morning, we set off to scout some land for the creation of a new GBA glade. We hiked up, down, around, and sideways, with a good amount of bushwhacking, paying attention to pre-logged areas, tree density, pitch gradient, and property lines. Afterward, we met up with some local board members/leaders of an outdoor recreation club in the area to discuss how to collaborate our efforts moving forward.

As my knowledge base surrounding the industry grew, so did my commitment to its underlying mission. It is important to me to be doing relevant and meaningful work, and I have come to find the rapidly growing outdoor recreation industry a place where people are working to uphold the values of outdoor recreation access, environmental protection, and stewardship. In addition to this value-led workforce, the same holds for maintaining an outdoor lifestyle alongside your career. There is an intersection between work and passion in the outdoor industry, a balance that makes a career more of a way of life rather than simply another job. Spending the summer working and playing in the White Mountains highlighted this. Between sunrise hikes before work with Sam (BYC’s Marketing Manager) or taking to the trails afterward for a run or ride, I found this intersection to provoke not only a sustainable work /life balance, but also a greater appreciation for the spaces I was moving through and the people I was moving through them with.

I am walking away from this experience having developed new skills, gained knowledge of a new career field, and established a platform of networking connections. Backyard Concept has provided a supportive environment to learn more about my strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities and gain real-life exposure to an outdoor industry career. Questions around my future career remain looming, but my experience interning with Backyard Concept this summer has elevated my confidence. I feel prepared to hit the ground running as I enter the workforce next year.

I am looking forward to continuing my involvement with BYC, GOA and GBA through trail clean-ups, glade days, and Graniteer, and I want to extend a huge thank you to the BYC team, Tyler, Sam, and Colin, for providing guidance, clarity, and feedback every step of the way!