Joe Edmistion swears in Fernando Gomez as Chief Ranger of the MRCA.
Creating Opportunities for Success MRCA’s Jobs Program
As the MRCA preserves open space, builds and restores parks, and expands outreach programs into new communities, we look for promising candidates from the surrounding area to help us fulfill these tasks. When possible we recruit from local communities and community organizations for both seasonal and full-time jobs. Several of our full- time, and now long-time, staff have their roots in these programs.
Fernando Gomez, Lorenzo Mateo, and Alfredo Leon are all career MRCA employees in three different divisions of the agency. All came to the MRCA through community recruitment and jobs programs.
Fernando began his career with the MRCA following 3 years of dedicated work with the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, as part of their Clean-and-Green crews. At the age of 18, Fernando started an internship with the MRCA- sponsored Urban Naturalist In- Training (UNIT). This innovative program empowered young adults
from urban areas to be educators promoting stewardship of our parks and the environment, and to reach thousands of inner-city children with a positive message. Fernando enjoyed the program so much he followed it up with a second MRCA-sponsored internship with the Urban Park Professionals (UPP) program. This program expanded on the training in UNIT and incorporated all aspects of park planning and management with community college classes and on- the-job work experience.
Wanting to further develop his skills and experience, Fernando participated in ride-alongs with park rangers. It was during these trips where his interest was piqued in law enforcement and that would forever change Fernando. On his own initiative, he completed the first step toward a law enforcement career at Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier. Tapping into connections with the MRCA through his internships, Fernando became
the first MRCA ranger trainee, later completing his law enforcement training at the San Bernardino Sheriff Academy. Now, nearly 19 years later, Fernando has recently been appointed as Chief Ranger of the MRCA (see side bar). His job is anything but boring; and this is what he loves about it. He is fighting fires one day, applying his law enforcement expertise the next, and still giving back to the community.
Like Fernando, Lorenzo started with the LACC on their Clean-and- Green crews. Later, he worked on trail maintenance with the California Conservation Corps and had an internship with CalTrans on their tree-trimming crew. Upon turning 18, he became a crew leader back at the LACC, leading the same Clean- and-Green crews that he had once worked in. While at the LACC, he heard about the MRCA jobs program, Build Youth. Intrigued with the idea of developing parks, he applied, was accepted and began working on the construction of
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