{"id":401,"date":"2019-05-20T19:45:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T19:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/?p=401"},"modified":"2019-08-29T17:31:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T17:31:48","slug":"josh-lewis-walking-the-path-toward-forestry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/2019\/05\/20\/josh-lewis-walking-the-path-toward-forestry\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Lewis: walking the path toward forestry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"After a walk across the United States and an epic 48-hour experience in Grand Canyon National Park, junior Josh Lewis<\/a> knew he had to study forestry.<\/p>\n

The park rangers took care of him and gave him advice during his hike through the canyon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hiked from north to south, and due to snow, I had to hike backwards and go back around,\u201d Lewis explains.<\/p>\n

But his spirit wasn\u2019t deterred.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to have the mindset that this is one of the most beautiful places I\u2019ve been, and I get to see it twice,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cAnd, thanks to the rangers, I realized my dream of working on and managing public lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis was born in the Pacific Northwest and spent time in rural Idaho as a child, before his family moved on to bigger cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think starting out in nature really shapes you,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve worked a lot of different kinds of jobs, and after a while, they\u00a0 all get old. I\u2019ve been studying forestry<\/a> for about three years now, and it still excites me because of the connection to the natural landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis now calls Maui home, and first studied at the University of Hawai\u2018i, but took a break to complete his long walk when he realized he wasn\u2019t working toward a particular goal. Since arriving at Oregon State, he\u2019s kept his head in his books and focused on his classes. He says that since entering professional school, he\u2019s hit a groove, and is enjoying his upper-level forestry<\/a> classes.<\/p>\n

He marks field school as one of the best Oregon State experiences so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like class, but it was really self-driven,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cI needed a lot of time to finish some of the exercises we did because going in, I wasn\u2019t completely confident in my forestry skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Field school orients students to the professional forestry\u00a0 program and reinforces skills they\u2019ve learned in the classroom by allowing students to practice in a real-world setting.<\/p>\n

Lewis says one of the benefits of field school was getting to know his fellow classmates.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring field school, we spent all day in the woods together and lived together at night,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was an A-plus experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019s goal is to work at Haleakala\u00af National Park on Maui, but he says staying put in Oregon is a great backup plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it here,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful, and it\u2019s not really that far from the islands.\u201d<\/p>\n

He encourages anyone interested in the outdoors to consider studying forestry<\/a> at Oregon State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m earning marketable skills in an industry that will allow me to work outside,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cMy experience has been seamless. Everyone is friendly, and I love the atmosphere of my classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A version of this story appeared in the spring 2019 issue of <\/i>Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry. Learn more about our undergraduate programs here<\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a walk across the United States and an epic 48-hour experience in Grand Canyon National Park, junior Josh Lewis knew he had to study forestry. The park rangers took care of him and gave him advice during his hike through the canyon. \u201cI hiked from north to south, and due to snow, I had… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110163],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}