Get to know Gina Sando!
Name: Gina Sando
Position: Visitor Services Manager, Resource Management Division, Fairfax County Park Authority.
I was born in New Jersey to a Deaf family. My parents are Deaf along with my sister and an uncle, indicating that it may be a recessive trait. I grew up fully immersed in American Sign Language (ASL). I attended preschool and part of kindergarten at the New Jersey School for the Deaf prior to our family’s move to North Carolina. I finished kindergarten and first grade at the Central North Carolina School for the Deaf.
More than 90% of Deaf children are born to hearing parents, and as a result many of them experience language delays as they are not exposed to language until school (unless their parents learn sign language). Teaching a Deaf child to speak is notoriously difficult as most sounds and mouth movements are actually made at the back of the mouth and in the throat, and even after years of speech therapy many individuals’ speech patterns are still difficult to understand. I am fortunate and privileged to have been born in a Deaf family, so I was exposed to ASL from birth. As a result, I was ahead of my peers in school. Due to this, my parents made the decision to mainstream me. This means that I was placed in “the mainstream” of public school, with hearing children close to my age, and with an ASL interpreter.
This was the type of education I received throughout most of my K-12 school years. I attribute this to my work ethic and motivation, as I have always had to work three times as hard as my peers. I receive information in a different language and have to translate it to take accurate notes. After high school, I attended Rochester Institute of Technology and received two degrees there, a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Master of Science in Environmental Science. As an undergrad, I was hoping to work in a zoo (and actually had worked at a local zoo and at a big cat sanctuary during these four years). In graduate school, my focus shifted to working for the federal government, perhaps in the EPA. I had lofty goals of being a consultant at the White House, or perhaps in Congress.
Clearly – my path to a career in park & recreation was a roundabout one!
That changed with my first service corps experience. As a Student Conservation Association volunteer, I got a natural resources management internship with Palisades Interstate Park Commission, based out of Bear Mountain State Park, roughly an hour north of New York City. From there, I was hooked. I served as an AmeriCorps intern at York River State Park and then was hired at Smith Mountain Lake State Park.
I still wanted to add to my knowledge and skills, and that White House consultant dream was still there, so I made the difficult decision to move to Northern Virginia and start graduate school (again!) at Johns Hopkins University, studying Energy Policy and Climate. I was hired at Lake Fairfax Park as an assistant manager and naturalist, figuring it was a temporary gig until I finished my degree and got that elusive White House gig.
Three and a half years later, almost two years since I finished my degree, and I’m still here and loving what I do every day. I love that the Park Authority gave me an opportunity to truly realize my potential, and I have never gotten a “no” to any sort of access request. The Park Authority’s mission aligns closely with my values and personal beliefs, and I am incredibly thankful to continue to grow professionally with such an incredible team. The best part? Now that I’m based out of Huntley Meadows Park as a program manager, I have the ability to go out and be one with nature whenever I have a minute.