Meet our Winter Intern: Sloan Miles
By BMWF Staff
This January, we’ve been lucky enough to have some extra help from Sloan Miles, a student at Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, AL. Sloan has been making contacts with outdoor businesses and manufacturers to grow our gear library, and helping us spread the word about our wilderness internship opportunities. We asked Sloan a few questions about his connection to the outdoors and what drew him to volunteering his J-term to the foundation.
When did your love of the outdoors begin?
My love and appreciation for the outdoors dates back to when I was about 10-12 years old just being outside with friends and family. The outdoors have and always will be the best place to congregate and build fellowship with people you’re close with and people you have yet to meet! Whether it’s a barbecue in someone’s back yard on a warm summer day listening to good tunes and the annoying sound of cicadas, which I know some locals in Montana probably haven’t had the luxury of experiencing, or hiking up a mountain for a mile or two to reach a well-known vantage point where you can see a vast, topographically diverse, jaw-droppingly beautiful landscape. Or maybe just enjoying an afternoon with some friends having a picnic and throwing frisbee; the outdoors has been the common ground, so to speak, for the fondest moments I’ve shared with my close friends and family.
What are you studying now, and what do you hope to pursue as a career?
Currently I’m a sophomore at Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, AL. I’m studying Urban Environmental Studies with a concentration in project management, land & wildlife management, urban development, and sustainability which are all things that I’d love to incorporate into my career after college. Land stewardship was the main appeal for me at the beginning and even now, and like most interests, you can find a myriad of careers that cater to what you’re interested in. I’d really like to do something along the lines of what the BMWF offers. A mix of project development/management and actual field work seem to be right up my alley!
What drew you to volunteering for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation?
I just really like what they’re about. Hearing about their mission to bring people out of their houses and workplaces and into the Wilderness seems to be a worthy endeavor to pursue. More recently, they’ve had a desire to see more diversity in their volunteer and internship programs where people from all generational, socio-economic, and racial backgrounds can also come and enjoy the massive backyard that is the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. I enjoy traveling to different places to see and experience things that I wouldn’t normally see or experience on an ordinary day. I know there are many people who either look like me or don’t that would love to be a part of what I’ve been so fortunate and blessed to experience. Interning with the BMWF has surpassed my expectations in the best ways possible!
Do you have a favorite memory or experience from a wild place you’ve visited?
Back in 2013 my dad took me on a trip to Vancouver, Canada to go backpacking with a few family friends who regularly went on trips like this one. I remember being so excited in just packing my bags to go on the trip! I had no idea what I’d be getting myself into, but I knew that the sights I would see would seem so surreal. We flew up to Seattle, Washington and crossed the border there to get into Vancouver. From there we hopped on a ferry to ride over to Vancouver Island where we would do our actual backpacking. I remember the air being the freshest, crispest, and best smelling it had ever been in my life, better than any essential oil that you could get your hands on. I saw trees that reached the sky and then kept going. The misty and foggy air held so much mystery that all you wanted to do was just go further and further into it. And one day on our adventures, we reached the edge of the island overlooking tide pools and then the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. We all had some time to ourselves to explore that area to see what we could find and to just be in the moment. I remember finding a piece of driftwood that functioned almost as a cricket bat, so I did what most boys my age would do: look for some rocks and start launching them into the ocean with my newly-acquired, makeshift cricket bat. In that brief amount of time, the best way I could explain how I felt was that it felt like I was just at rest, almost zen-like. I feel and hear from God the clearest when I’m outside in the wild whether that’s in Vancouver Island, Canada or taking walks around my neighborhood back in Memphis. But that moment I had by myself overlooking the violent waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing into the coast as if it had a dispute to settle with the land I was standing on was the richest, most enjoyable experience I’ve had out in the wild.
What does wilderness mean to you?
My passion is to just be the best steward I can be of the land that we’ve been given. My faith has been a driving force in this pursuit, and I believe that regardless of your religious affiliation or political persuasion there is a need to protect and grow our natural landscapes and into something more beautiful and brighter for the generations to come. Wilderness to me carries a bunch of negative connotations with it: scary, rough, rugged, dangerous, risky, terrifying, mysterious. Although these connotations can be true in the right context, I also believe the wilderness provides something beneficial that urban and heavily-populated areas cannot. The wilderness is where you can find or rediscover the part of your humanity that longs to care for and protect the things that don’t have voices. It can be where you breathe truly for the first time. It can be where you’re faced with a challenge that’s been knocking on your front door for years and now you finally get to answer it. It can be where you learn things you’d never think you would have the opportunity to learn. The wilderness is one of the last frontiers that consistently offers new opportunities and new adventures.
Thank you Sloan! We’re so happy to have you on board!