Carmen Rabago is thePocahontas State Park. She began her service in April and has assisted the interpreter staff with educational programming and community outreach.
Carmen Rabago is the Pocahontas State Park.
Growing up on a small farm in Culpeper County with cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys, guineas, peacocks, a few dogs and a hermit crab or two gave her an appreciation for animals and their own uniqueness. By 1987 she had relocated to Fauquier County and landed a job in the airline industry as an Editorial Assistant. Throughout her 22 years as a tariff analyst she sought more fulfilling and enriching experiences so she volunteered as a private reading and writing tutor and then later as an ESL instructor. Those opportunities led to further work with disenfranchised individuals and families in need and projects with Habitat for Humanity.
Carmen considers herself very fortunate to have worked as a tour guide at the National Zoo's Smithsonian Conservation and Biology Institute located in Front Royal. While there, she was offered an internship with a resident ecologist and continued her experience there for 6 years as an educator, tour guide and part-time animal keeper's assistant. In 2007 she was offered an opportunity to intern at Kenya's Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary through an NGO based in Nairobi. It was a pilot program designed to find a compromise between elephant movement, local landowners and life-sustaining/revenue generating crops.
Throughout her career and her many very interesting and diverse experiences she always found her true calling in education and public service. "I had an epiphany,” said Rabago. “I really enjoy helping people help themselves and I have embarked on a whole new, exciting and sometimes scary journey to reach out and give a voice to our environment and encourage everyone to hear her sing."
In 2010, Corporation for National and Community Service to fund the VSP Interpretative Project by providing an AmeriCorps volunteer to all 34 parks. The VSP Interpretative Project was developed to assist parks with increasing environment educational programming. An AmeriCorps volunteer will be part of a team that designs and leads education programs, recruits new park volunteers and interacts with park visitors. AmeriCorps is a network of national service programs that engage Americans each year in intensive service to meet critical needs in education, public safety, health and the environment.