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Exploring National Parks

Alex Woods / Philadelphia

Have you ever wanted to be a park ranger? Thanks to the National Park Service's Junior Ranger Program, you can be. Nearly 300 parks and historic sites across the country offer kids the chance to become junior rangers. Since the program's launch in the 1920s, more than 3 million kids have participated.

To become a junior ranger, a kid must visit a national park, monument or historical site that has a Junior Ranger Program and pick up a booklet at the visitor center. The booklet is filled with activities that help kids see and experience the park at their own pace. Activities vary from park to park. Some parks require candidates to answer questions about the park they are visiting. Others offer geology, history and wildlife programs.

"Kids have fun," says Joanne Schillizzi, who created the Junior Ranger Program at the Edgar Allan Poe House National Historic Site, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "But they also learn something about the siteoand, maybe, about themselves."

Once the booklet is completed, junior ranger candidates review their work with a park ranger. At some sites, participants take the junior ranger oath, promising to protect all national parks. The newly sworn-in junior ranger receives an official badge and a certificate.

Above all, junior rangers learn fun ways to explore the world around them. When Mack Finkel, 11, earned his badge at Glacier National Park, in Montana, it was a big deal. "Everyone clapped for me and it was pretty cool," Mack told TFK. It sounds as if Mack considers the program a monumental success.

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