The job is done
Junior Spencer Bowman, a student trip leader, is proud of the work his group did for the National Park Service.
A week ago today, nine Media School students, including myself, climbed the steps of a mini bus and made our way to the Indianapolis International Airport, unsure of what the upcoming week would have in store for us.
After hours of traveling, we rolled into Ocean Springs, Mississippi, home of Gulf Islands National Seashore. We were anxious for the week to get started and to get our creative juices flowing. We spent the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday exploring our home for the week. We went on the hiking trails, drove into town to enjoy all of the restaurants and shops, and made a trip to the beach despite it being a bit foggy.
We kicked off the week by meeting with Brent Everitt, director of communications at GUIS, and his intern Peyton. After a few introductions, we dove right into filming, and our projects quickly began to unfold right in front of us. Throughout our week here, we had the opportunity to speak with many incredible people who offered insight to the environment here and how unique Gulf Islands National Seashore really is.
Living in Indiana, we don’t get to see places like this on a regular basis. We can’t walk down the road in Bloomington and see alligators and turtles sunning themselves in the bayou. Staying on the park grounds really allowed us to take in Mississippi and the park in all of its natural beauty.
On Tuesday we traveled an hour by boat to Ship Island, where we explored Fort Massachusetts and spent time on the swim beach. The island hasn’t opened up to the public yet, so having the opportunity to explore the fort on our own, at our own pace and just being about to take everything in was an experience that I won’t forget. There’s something truly amazing about standing in the middle of a place that is so rich with history.
The beach is full of wildlife, and being able to capture that on film for our projects was such a cool experience. One of our goals was to successfully capture the unique wildlife in its natural habitat, and Ship Island gave us that opportunity, which you can now see in our final videos that we produced for the National Park Service.
Over the last few days of editing, I reflected on how amazing of an opportunity this trip is. Our environment is so important, and the NPS does an ample amount to help preserve that beauty. Having the opportunity to create these promotional videos for the Gulf Islands National Seashore will hopefully encourage people from all over the country to take some time out of their busy lives to come enjoy the park that we got to call home for a week.
