ACT Spring 2024 Outreach Internship Highlight: Discovering a New Side of Gainesville
By Peyten Hernandez
As a senior in high school I remember being asked why I wanted to move to Gainesville and attend UF. There was no shortage of people telling me that there was nothing to do in Gainesville and that I would be bored. I always responded the same way: “but there’s football and the springs!” Yet somehow it took me almost four years to visit the nearby springs for the first time. Interning at ACT has illuminated, for me, the disconnect between UF students and the Gainesville community. Tabling and attending work days for ACT has opened my eyes to an entire community I hadn’t interacted with before, one where conservation is a driving force bringing everyone together.
From 5ks for the springs, to cleaning up preserves, to removing invasive species, I’ve learned that the residents of Gainesville are meeting up outside supporting one another. If you research Gainesville on any travel website, they’ll say the same thing: go outside. And that’s exactly what Gainesville’s residents do. Through meeting and talking with Gainesville locals, it seems like everyone knows everyone, and they love where they live.
I’m graduating in one week, and I am so thankful to have had this experience throughout my last semester of college. As students, we get so caught up in life on campus that we are blinded to everything Gainesville and North Central Florida truly has to offer. I’ve been working hard since I began my internship to make my friends and anyone around me aware of how much more there is to see and do if you just go a little further off campus. I can only imagine how special it would have been to participate in everything I’m participating in now with ACT throughout my four years, and I want to help other students find this opportunity to connect.
My favorite ACT events that I’ve participated in are Weekly Walk and Talks at various ACT public preserves. It’s been an amazing opportunity to get outside and spend some time in the sun, and I’ve met so many friendly people from around different parts of Gainesville each time. I’ve been trying to soak up my last couple months here as much as possible, and these people have, probably unknowingly, made a lasting impact on me. But by bearing witness to their willingness to get out and explore a new (or already beloved) part of their community has inspired me to do the same. I think UF students could learn a lot from the natural space and community Gainesville has to offer, to truly make a home for 4 years feel like home. Whether it’s through an internship, volunteer days, visiting our table at events, or attending a Walk and Talk, I highly encourage other students to check out what ACT has to offer and delve deeper into the Gainesville community around them.
Banner image: Kayaks along the Santa Fe River by Alison Blakeslee.
