While Mary Moore Searight Metropolitan Park is a favorite place for Akins students to spend time outdoors, it has not always been the easiest place to navigate.

As part of a project called “Speak Up, Speak Out,” Akins students enrolled in the Austin Corps program. After getting lost in the 344 acre park for about 3 hours and identifying the lack of signage, the students decided to propose changes for the park to prevent others from getting lost.

“The first time we went to Mary Moore we got lost in the trails, because there are no signs,” social studies teacher Maribel Velez-Ramos said.

During the fall, Ramos’ Austin Corps students began research and development in fixing the problem, they hoped to make the park safer with proper navigation signs that help guide people and provide interactive features activated with QR code scanners.

The trail signs lead civilians safely through the area with information about distance, directions, and the local wildlife.

The students teamed up with the City of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department to design, fund, and install the signs and postings to make this possible.

“We joined with the city as a partnership to help build the trail signs that would be our Akins contribution to the park,” Ramos said.

The Austin Corps students also recently completed installing fencing to expand the size of the off-leash dog park at Mary Moore. It was a big job that took 8-10 hours to complete over a weekend in March.

“Lots of labor and time was put into installing the fence,” senior Ileen Quach said.

The park project is just one example of what the Austin Corps program does at Akins. The main focus of this internship program is to provide students the ability to experience and learn hands on how it is to work in many different areas of the Austin municipal government including, Austin Parks and Recreation, Austin Airport, Austin Animal Center, and City Hall.

“We visited government job sites, every week we visited job sites all over the city of Austin,”Ileen Quach said.

Senior Victoria Gonzales said she enjoys the internship because she gets to see another part of the city that many don’t get to see.

“It’s nice to get off campus every now and then,” Gonzales said.

This program has had a positive impact in the lives of those involved. The out-of-the-classroom method has increased the student’s ability to learn the basics they will need in their future careers.

“It’s a really good experience, you learn a lot.” Quach said.

The Austin Corps is currently accepting applications, if you or someone you know may be interested, visit room 236.