Did you know Great Outdoors Colorado has invested more than $1.7 BILLION into nearly 6,000 outdoor projects across Colorado — protecting wildlife habitat, building parks and trails, restoring rivers, and creating outdoor spaces for communities across the entire state? Now imagine being the person who gets to tell those stories through social media, commercials, videos, live events, photography, and statewide campaigns seen by thousands of people. What if your future career combined creativity, storytelling, journalism, graphic design, marketing, outdoor adventure, and environmental impact all in one job?
Crystal Medrano, Communications Officer at GOCO, shares how she turned her background in journalism, media, public speaking, and storytelling into a career helping protect Colorado’s outdoors. Crystal explains how her work helps inspire kids and families to get outside through GOCO’s Generation Wild campaign, which includes statewide outdoor challenges, creative commercials, social media campaigns, wildflower seed giveaways for pollinators, and even a giant mascot named Wilder — part goat, part Yeti, all friend. From collaborating on commercials shown at Colorado Rockies games to dressing as a bee during pollinator campaigns, Crystal gives a behind-the-scenes look at the fun, fast-paced world of environmental communications and marketing.
Crystal also shares how communication careers are essential in the environmental field because every conservation project needs someone to tell the story behind it. Whether it’s writing newsletters sent to thousands of people, managing websites and social media, designing graphics in Canva, working with reporters, attending community events, or helping people understand where lottery-funded conservation dollars go, her work helps connect people to nature in meaningful ways. She highlights that communication skills like writing, creativity, organization, storytelling, public speaking, and social media management are valuable in almost every career field today. If you enjoy creating content, telling stories, photography, design, social media, journalism, or working on projects that make a real difference, this presentation offers an exciting look into how creative careers can help protect the outdoors and inspire entire communities.