Chelsi Ritchie

I got into natural resources because I've always loved animals and wanted to work around them. I love the outdoors - kayaking, hiking, and camping - so when I graduated from Hocking College in 2016 with my associate's degree, I knew I wanted to work in natural resources. Around that same time, a friend of mine who surveyed asked if I wanted to help him, and even though I didn't know anything about surveying, I started doing it and just fell in love with working outside. I surveyed with them for 7-8 years, going from technician to running the instrument, and I also did office work. I thought, well, if I can do all this, I can become a surveyor. So I decided to start going to school for it at the University of Maine online. What I really enjoy about surveying is that there's a balance - part-time is outdoors, part-time is office work on the computer. Right now I work from home as a quality assurance agent doing homeowner's insurance inspections, and I just started yesterday at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources as a natural resources worker at Fork Run State Park. At the park, I help run a camp store where we sell stuff to campers, make reservations, help them check in and out, clean up around the park and the bathrooms and showers, and help customers with service. I'm mostly in natural resources, and I took very seriously the saying that if you love your job, you never work a day in your life.