{"id":12340,"date":"2024-09-19T14:03:24","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T14:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/19\/master-of-my-own-destiny\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:22:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:22:44","slug":"master-of-my-own-destiny","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/19\/master-of-my-own-destiny\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Master of my own destiny\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Chronicling life as a park ranger with Andrew Vietze \u201991<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><br \/>\n <br \/>\n Andrew Vietze ’91<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewvietze.com\/\" aria-label=\"andrew vietze website\">Andrew Vietze<\/a> ’91 took a leap of faith.<\/p>\n<p>As an editor for <em>Down East Magazine<\/em>, he’d written extensively about Baxter State Park in Maine, chronicling rescues and the feat of climbing Mount Katahdin. After a while, Vietze couldn’t ignore his desires anymore. He wanted to do more than just write about Baxter, he wanted to become a part of it.<\/p>\n<p>“It was terrifying, frankly, to walk away from a cushy job that was desired by lots of people not knowing how I would fare,” said Vietze, who majored in English and history at Clark. “I knew that I couldn’t sit at a desk anymore and look out the window and live a 7-to-6 workday every day. I knew I wanted to be master of my own destiny.”<\/p>\n<p>For the past 20 years, Vietze has worked as a park ranger in Baxter. He is the author of “<a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewvietze.com\/this-wild-land\" aria-label=\"book info\">This Wild Land: Two Decades of Adventure as a Park Ranger in the Shadow of Katahdin<\/a>,” which chronicles his life and work as a ranger — from search-and-rescue missions to trail maintenance to cleaning toilets. His other titles include “<a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewvietze.com\/white-pine\" aria-label=\"book info\">White Pine<\/a>,” “<a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewvietze.com\/becoming-teddy-roosevelt\" aria-label=\"book info\">Becoming Teddy Roosevelt<\/a>,” and “<a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewvietze.com\/boon-island\" aria-label=\"book info\">Boon Island<\/a>.”<\/p>\n<p><strong>Challenge. Change.<\/strong> is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4UuYAjq1d3Hq45cjwxoCNL\" aria-label=\"listen on spotify\">Spotify<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/challenge-change\/id1608025510\" aria-label=\"listen on apple podcasts\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"is-layout-flex wp-container-7 wp-block-columns no-gap photo-row\">\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis: 50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium-large wp-image-59972\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Andrew-Vietze-2-375x280-2.jpeg\" alt=\"man looks at canoes on shore\" width=\"375\" height=\"280\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis: 50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium-large wp-image-59970\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Andrew-Vietze-4-373x280-2.jpeg\" alt=\"man in park ranger station\" width=\"373\" height=\"280\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"csidebar center\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_39338\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39338\" style=\"width: 365px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-39338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019-Steinbrecher-Anton-Panel-014-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"Alicia Gauvin at table\" width=\"365\" height=\"243\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39338\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alicia Gauvin ’12 speaks on a panel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\">Where are they now?<br \/>\nHear more Clark alumni on Challenge. Change.<\/h3>\n<p class=\"headings__title svelte-1fpig7d p__small\" style=\"text-align: center\" data-testid=\"non-editable-product-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2024\/03\/25\/clark-alum-finds-his-true-colors\/\"><span dir=\"auto\">Picture Perfect with Film Colorist Brian Woos ’16<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"headings__title svelte-1fpig7d p__small\" style=\"text-align: center\" data-testid=\"non-editable-product-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/09\/07\/humanizing-the-spectrum-of-sexuality\/\"><span dir=\"auto\">Humanizing Sexual Health with Alicia Gauvin ’12<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"headings__title svelte-1fpig7d p__small\" style=\"text-align: center\" data-testid=\"non-editable-product-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/05\/18\/analyzing-americas-final-arbiter\/\"><span dir=\"auto\">Loan Forgiveness, First Amendment Rights, Section 230, and other Supreme Court Decisions with Jonathan Hack ’09<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chronicling life as a park ranger with Andrew Vietze \u201991<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12341,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":12341,"section_label":"Challenge. Change. Podcast","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223,241],"displayed_author":[237],"featured":[],"topic":[232,252,176],"class_list":["post-12340","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","category-environment-sustainability","displayed_author-melissa-hanson","topic-alumni","topic-alumni-stories","topic-podcast"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>\u2018Master of my own destiny\u2019 | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/19\/master-of-my-own-destiny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Master of my own destiny\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chronicling life as a park ranger with Andrew Vietze \u201991\" 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