Intern aspirations

Meet Kelly Perkins, former Membership & Development intern at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC). She’s also one of our newest Trail Guardians, better known as our monthly donors, and now she’s someone I look up to. You’re probably asking, “Max, so what?” Well hold your horses, I’m getting to it.

Kelly was connected with the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) for about three years prior to being an intern. She was part of the Appalachian State University Trail Crew which went out around the Boone, NC area and helped maintain local trails. The A.T. and her fellow volunteers had the most profound impact on her. Kelly said, “I was astounded at the passion these men and women had for maintaining the Trail.”

Kelly accomplished a lot during her time at the ATC as an intern, including analyzing the membership database. She spent her time interpreting information about members and the best ways to communicate with our supporters. Kelly’s work helped grow the ATC’s donor support. Best of all, the experience she gained during the internship helped her go on to secure a full time position analyzing business data for a North Carolina logistics company following her graduation from Appalachian State University.

She wanted to give back to the Trail and the ATC, but how was she supposed to do this and balance her new job? Kelly set the bar high for us interns by becoming a monthly donor. Kelly said, “[Donating to the ATC] gave me an option of giving back to the Trail in a different way than physically maintaining it. My choice to donate really came from a snowball type series of events from working on the A.T. with Trail Crew, working on trails during my summer season working at Grandfather Mountain State Park and then being an intern at the ATC. Working at the Conservancy gave me the opportunity to learn more about an organization that focused on what I already enjoyed doing: hiking and just being outside.”

Why does this make Kelly someone I admire? Well, I’m currently in college and the thought of losing out on money allocated for ramen and cheap light beer is horrifying. I know I’m not alone in that fear. I also know that one day I’ll move beyond that phase of Red Bull and corn flakes for breakfast and I’ll find a career and hopefully settle down and start a family. I won’t be an unpaid intern forever. That’s when I’ll be thinking about Kelly and her induction into the ranks of the ATC’s Trail Guardians. If she can find a way to give back through her monthly donations, I’ll be able to as well.

And that’s an intern aspiration.