Rosemary Faya Prola

Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Montgomery County Park and Planning Department Countywide Planning, Historic Preservation Section

As an intern at M-NCPPC, my major responsibility was to assist in the development of a strategic plan for the management of park-owned cultural resources. My principal task was to map all the 153 park-owned cultural resources using GIS software to create a historic properties layer in the park database. This assignment required compiling and entering information related to significance, use, and maintenance of each property into a database. In addition, I took photographs, served as staff to the strategic plan advisory committee, and helped to edit the strategic plan document. The benefits provided by this internship included the chance to learn GIS software and further develop my skills in the use of Microsoft Excel and Adobe Photo Deluxe; the opportunity to participated as a member of a team of dedicated professionals engaged in important preservation work; and greater insight into the challenges and rewards of working as a preservation planner for a public agency.