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In late winter 2023, against record-setting snowfall, two Fort Lewis College juniors joined Southwest Colorado Community Naturalist Keith Bruno and Weminuche Audubon Society Volunteer Kurt Huffman for a 10-mile trek into the HD Mountains near Bayfield, Colorado. Matt Young and Ian Crews were on a mission to record the unique calls of the Mexican spotted owl. Young and Crews are members of FLC’s Strategies for Ecological Education, Diversity & Sustainability Club, and the excursion provided valuable insight into their future careers as land management professionals.

Skiing is the economic lynchpin for many Colorado communities, providing capital to local businesses and opportunities for further economic development. The industry produces $4.8 billion in revenue in the state and provides 46,000 year-round jobs. The ski industry is also an integral part of the United States economy, generating $20 billion in economic output annually. 

Many students, staff, and faculty noticed the vibrant poster reminding the FLC community of Native American Heritage Month, a celebration of the cultural impact of Indigenous peoples. The poster’s design is the work of V. Barney, a senior studying Communication Design and Sports Administration.

Ben Sorensen (Marketing, '13) stepped away from his corner office and position as the director of sales for Ballantine Communications Industry to start his own business, Ascent Digital Agency.

Thanks to generous donors and a bounty of support from FLC’s Career Services, students can gain invaluable real-world experience while doing a world of good before they even graduate. From farms to radio, Africa to outer space, student interns work alongside professionals in fields of their interests, gaining skills and insight into their future roles beyond the classroom.

A Durango-based nonprofit uses both a social system from the past and student talents from the present to make it affordable for Four Corners-area homeowners to add solar power systems to their homes. 

Angela Grogan couldn’t imagine that a rhinoceros would help determine her passion and her career. That was before she spent two summers interning with Out of Africa Wildlife Park, a private zoo in Camp Verde, Arizona.

For many of us, a college internship helped forge the direction we would follow in our professional careers. Six Fort Lewis College students received such inspiration this summer through the inaugural Four Corners Federal Lands Internship Program.

What is it like to be a student at Fort Lewis College? In our "Day in the Life" series, we'll explore student life at FLC through the eyes of our students. In this episode, we meet Danielle, who has an event planning internship that mirrors her Business Administration – Tourism & Hospitality Management major. On this day, Danielle works out at the Student Life Center, goes to a Marketing class, has lunch downtown at The Balcony, and helps plan and execute an event called Chocolate Fantasia.

The joyous moment has finally arrived: my last semester of college…gasp! The disbelief is mixed with the overwhelming excitement of what is to come May 3^rd, which is graduation, on into the rest of my life. Being an extremely traditional student, having been in school constantly since pre-Kindergarten, the thought of school not being my first priority is a strange idea to digest.

I opened my eyes and sat up in my seat. Then, remembering where I was, I quickly pulled up my window shade and caught my breath as I took in the view from my little airplane window. An enormous expanse of mountains, ocean, trees, mud flats, pink and golden clouds…I could hardly contain my amazement at the beauty I was seeing. I pressed my face closer to the tiny window, trying to better view my first glimpse of Alaska.

I have always liked having a plan and setting goals, so when I started my junior year as a Political Science major at Fort Lewis, finding an internship was part of my plan and my number one goal. I spent some time researching big internship opportunities that would put me front and center of the political world in Washington D.C. and eventually found one that fit my standards. I spent days preparing all of my application materials and writing and editing the essay questions. Finally in January I submitted my application to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Internship Program and the waiting game began.

One of the most valuable things I did in college was getting museum internships. I have thought for a while that I might be interested in working in a museum and the internships I had helped me solidify my decision. Not only did I learn more about having a job in a museum, I also got a taste of how to find a job. I scoured the internet for places I wanted to work and asked people if they knew of any museum opportunities. If I couldn’t find information on the internet, I called the people I wanted to work with and asked if they had a need for an intern. Talk about terrifying!

With unemployment still above 7.5 percent it can be a challenge for college graduates to get a start on their career path after school. To help their students, today’s college career services programs must offer more than “a slightly gloomy place with 3x5 index cards posted on the wall listing bad job openings…” So says Suzanne Lucas in her CBS Money Watch article “.”

Growing up, I was always a typical girl, dreaming of princess dresses, flowers, good food, music, and eating yummy cake. So by the time I entered college, and needed to think about a career, I thought, why not take that little girl’s dream and turn it into reality? That’s when I decided to major in Business, focusing in Tourism/Hospitality Management, with an aim to find a career in the Wedding Planning and Event Coordinating industry.

Fort Lewis is not just there to provide you with an education, but to provide you with the means to succeed in your post collegiate career. In my case, I hit a cornerstone in college where this was starkly apparent.

In the fall semester of my junior year I was taking a variety of business and art classes to chip away at my art and business double major. One of these classes was Operations Management which deals with higher level statistics and how they more directly apply to businesses.

Normally when people think "history," "excitement" doesn't also come to mind. But for Evan West, it does.

West, a sophomore History and Theatre dual-major from Fort Collins, is one of the first students to explore the History Department's new Public History option, which, he says, “is all about bringing history to life.”

When it comes to career preparation, nothing beats real-world experience.

A new internship program coordinated by the FLC Career Services office and the Durango Chamber of Commerce is creating opportunities for students to get that hands-on professional experience, earning workplace wisdom and insights, while deepening their skills and knowledge.

Some of Fort Lewis College students' most rewarding experiences and achievements don't make it onto their resumes or applications for graduate school or jobs --  studying abroad, completing an internship or volunteer experience, making the dean’s list, or winning a departmental award or scholarship -- even though these may be the most meaningful, educational, and career-preparing accomplishments on the way to earning their degrees.