Most people choose a major like business, communication, or biology, but not Hannah Seivertson.
One day, her junior year she was talking to her anatomy teacher Mr. Orth about what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. That is when she found the parks and recreation major.
“I chose this when I was on a rant about how I will just work at Schenk Lake forever and Mr. Orth told me that you can actually make a career out of this. I looked into the major and quickly fell in love with the idea of it,” said Seivertson.
From a young age she has practically lived at Oglebay park. From going to camps in the summer, to going through the Festival of Lights in the winter. When she wasn’t at Oglebay she was traveling with her family going to national parks and monuments.
“Something about them was just always fascinating to me. I simply fell in love with everything Oglebay had to offer once I actually began working there,” said Hannah Seivertson.
Once she was old enough to work she got a job as a lake attendant at Schenk Lake. Seivertson worked as an attendant for four years before becoming a Supervisor. One of the requirements of her major is that she had to do a professional work experience at Oglebay. Now she acts as a Manager on Duty as well as a supervisor.
Seivertson has to take seven different parks and recreation classes. The classes have been the best part of her journey. Seivertson has been able to take many different field trips to parks around Morgantown, gone on hiking trails, had to evaluate trails, and so much more.
“My classes give me different lessons for just about any parks and recreational based jobs. I’ve learned about budgets and finances, but we’ve also learned about the soils and how to make the trails. It really is the best of both worlds,” said Hannah Seivertson.
After college, Seivertson isn’t completely sure what she wants to do. She wants to be a manager or a director of a park but not sure which one yet.
“As much as I’d love to sit here and say I’m going to be the CEO of the Wheeling Park Commision, I have no clue what I’m going to end up doing,” said Seivertson. “I don’t know if I want to go the city, state, national park, amusement park, or a sporting park route. I simply have no clue.”
Seivertson wants to have an active job where she can be involved hands on with all the thing she does.
“I am someone who can’t sit at a desk all day so as long as I don’t have to sit in an office and have the ability to get out and about I will be great,” said Seivertson.
