Who’s got the coolest summer job in the mountains?

That’s a hard call to make, but we weren’t discouraged by the challenge. We went looking for people who love their job because they can get paid for partaking in something they are passionate about. Reporter Julia Merchant spent the last week visiting different “workplaces” around the region, interviewing people who have discovered how to mix work with pleasure.

The face of WCU

Aubrey Ray’s bright grin is much more than just a smile. It’s also an anecdote to soothe the nerves of brand-new college freshman as they get their first exposure to life away from Mom and Dad.

Ray, 20, is an orientation leader at Western Carolina University, and for 48 hours seven or eight times each summer, she helps gives incoming students their initial glimpse into the Catamount lifestyle she’s fallen in love with.

She loves the range of students she gets to work with. Ray is in charge of leading the honors program students, a diverse group that hails from all over the state — an increasing number from the Piedmont area and urban areas.

“I feel like they’re spread out from all over,” she says. “There’s certainly a wide range of different backgrounds, and that’s what makes the group so fun.”

And at the beginning, there’s a wide range of emotions amongst the students.

“There’s some people who are completely comfortable and they feel they’re too cool to be there. Some students are nervous and shy, others are really enthusiastic and happy to be there and fun to work with,” she says.

Orientation leaders stay with their groups for the entire two days, eating meals with them, taking students to meet their advisors and carting them to fun activities like comedians and bingo. As older students who have experienced some of the trials of college, they also put on a skit about risky behaviors and responsible choices.

The groups are full of questions. The number one, Ray says, is “what is there to do around here?” She says students are concerned that there’s not enough to do in the rural setting, but orientation leaders assure freshman that’s not the case.

“There are just so many activities going on around campus all the time, and clubs you’d never even imagine,” she sys.

As a result of their time spent together, Ray says many of the students from an array of backgrounds grow close.

“Some have become close. They build a lot of strong bonds,” she says.

That extends to Ray as well. She not only bonds with the students she leads, but also the other orientation workers.

“We all become a big family,” she says. “This is the best experience I’ve had since I’ve been here. I’ve made close friends and learned a lot about the school. It’s a great thing to do during college.”

Ray didn’t even consider WCU as a choice of school at first.

“I never thought about coming here because it was so close to home,” says the Waynesville native and Tuscola High School graduate. “But I came to an open house, and fell in love with the clubs and organizations and the professors.”

Ray became involved in the Honors College, student government and intramural sports, but wanted to find a way to demonstrate to prospective students her love for the campus. Her friend suggested she apply to work as an orientation leader.

It’s a rigorous process. An application must be filled out and two interviews conducted. Then leaders take a class in the spring semester to prepare them for the experience.

Now, Ray works as an orientation leader to “help sell the school and show people what’s so wonderful about it.”

Scientist-in-training

As Carsyn Tennant sands down the rough edges of a cored sample from a tree’s interior, the history underneath gets a little clearer.

There has been no one but the trees to witness the life of this Southern Appalachian forest. So using the only historical documents available, Tennant — a scientist-in-training in her 40s — works to peel away the secrets held in tree rings. Studying them will uncover natural disasters that have occurred here, some hundreds of years ago.

Of course, unlocking a tree’s history is all in a day’s work for Tennant. As a paid intern at the Coweeta Hydrological Laboratory in Macon County, the Clemson University junior spends her summer studying the diverse environment of Western North Carolina.

When she’s not looking at natural disasters from days long ago, Tennant studies the effects of a present-day natural disaster — a forest fire in Linville. She and several other interns take a bus ride to the site once a week and spend all day collecting soil samples, “studying the nutrients that end up in the soil after the site has been burned or disturbed,” Tennant explains. They also gather forest floor samples of leaf litter and wood to determine how plants are collecting nutrients.

After a forest fire, the entire composition of a forest can change. Tennant and others look at what kinds of vegetation might grow there in the future, and in turn impact the whole ecosystem.

Spending time outside surrounded by the beauty of the mountains is one of the parts of her job Tennant likes most.

“Right now, the mountain laurel is blooming up there — it’s going crazy! It’s so beautiful,” she says. “There are expansive views of the ridges there, and they’re really enjoyable to look at.”

When she’s back at the Coweeta station, Tennant can be found doing a multitude of tasks — anything from running tests to determine the pH content of collected soils samples and recording the results to cleaning out the sediment that has collected in weirs at the station.

What Tennant likes most about her experience is the hands-on instruction she’s getting.

“It’s a good opportunity to experience research. There’s a lot of field work and data collection,” she says.

She also says the learning at Coweeta is more personalized than it might be in a university lab setting.

“It’s nice because there aren’t 20 people, like there would be in a class,” she says. “It’s a lot more one-on-one.”

And Tennant’s teachers are experts. She’s gained invaluable knowledge from working alongside scientists who study soil, forestry, and hydrology.

Working on the river

Josh Burton’s office isn’t like most people’s. It doesn’t have a ceiling, for one. It floats, for another. And it can be very wet and cold ....

Burton, 26, spends his summers working as a head raft guide for Nantahala Outdoor Center — and his “office” is the Nantahala River. He had a brief stint working in an indoor environment, but left it to pursue his true calling of an outdoor lifestyle and share his passion for whitewater with others.

“If there’s something you’re really passionate about, you kind of open up and really want to share that experience. (Rafting) is something that enriches my life,” Burton says. “Working through NOC, I really get a chance to share a passion and try to get people to take something that has become important in my life and catch the same bug.”

Burton is a native of Swain County and spent his childhood on the river.

“All my role models growing up were raft guides and people living this style,” he says. Burton became a guide when he turned 18, and except for a short few months, never looked back. In the fall, he guides rafts on the Gauley River in West Virginia.

But the family-friendly Nantahala is unique in that it accommodates rafters as young as 4. As a result, Burton gets to guide many through their first whitewater experience.

“At the beginning of the trip you might have somebody totally afraid, and at the end, they’re saying, ‘man, that was awesome! I can’t wait to go again!’” Burton says. He remembers one family with young boys who were terrified of the water. By the end, the kids were already planning their next trip.

Burton loves creating a memorable first experience for rafters.

“They might not remember who took them down for the 10th time,” he says, “but they’ll always remember who their first guide was.”

And the environment is so pleasurable, Burton often feels like he’s not even working.

“I get to go on their vacation with them,” he says of his groups.

Being outside and on the water are just two of the perks of Burton’s gig. He also enjoys the camaraderie that goes along with being part of the NOC community. Staff members live in communal housing and share close quarters. This in turn means strong bonds are forged with people from all over the nation.

“You have so many different people from so many different backgrounds here,” says Burton. “You make friends working here that last a lifetime.”

Cherokee Friend relives history

For half the year, Kim Bottchenbaugh is a jewelry-maker, practicing the Cherokee craft of beadworking. But during the summer, she’s Kim Wildcat — a Cherokee woman from the 1700s who greets visitors to the Eastern Band of Cherokee reservation.

Donning the traditional garb (and family name) of her ancestors, Bottchenbaugh and others in the tribal-sponsored Cherokee Friends program give directions, advice, and mini-history lessons to the tourists who flock to the reservation during the peak summer months.

For Bottchenbaugh, 36, it’s a chance to feel a connection to her almost 100 percent Cherokee lineage. When she puts on her moccasins, leggings, wrap skirt and jewelry, she’s reminded of the way her people once lived.

“I love it. When you think about the Trail of Tears and a way long time ago, everybody dressed this way, every day,” she says. “It makes you feel good, because that’s who you are.”

The Cherokee Friends are also required to channel another aspect of Cherokee culture — workers must speak at least some of the native language.

“O-si-yo,” or “hello,” is what visitors are greeted with upon meeting Bottchenbaugh. She’ll also translate things from English to Cherokee on request.

The interaction with visitors is one part of the job Bottchenbaugh likes the most. She’s met tourists from as far away as Ukraine and Australia.

“I’ve met a lot of people who brought their own interpreters to show them the sights. You meet all kinds of people,” she says.

The contact with visitors has had a profound personal impact on Bottchenbaugh. Before, she says, she was shy and would retreat into her beadwork, avoiding social interactions. Now, though, she has no hesitation going up to strangers and striking up a conversation.

“It really opened me up. Before, I had never done that,” she says.

The Friends program has been a learning experience in other ways too. Though Bottchenbaugh is intensely proud of her Cherokee heritage — except for her fifth great-grandfather, who was Irish, she has complete Cherokee ancestry — she didn’t know everything about her people’s past. Now, she feels more informed.

“I guess the most interesting thing I learned is that the Cherokees went through a whole lot. Not just the Trail of Tears, but before that also,” she says. “We were called savages,” but to the contrary, says Bottchenbaugh, her people are strong and resilient.

The Cherokee Friends can be spotted starting June 12. This year, Bottchenbaugh has an extra responsibility — Saturdays and Sundays, she’ll be giving a talking tour on a train that travels from Cherokee to Tennessee. Along the way, she’ll point out spots where the Cherokee stopped and camped during the Trail of Tears, and hiding places used before their removal.

‘A cultural whirlwind

This summer, 18-year-old Anna Stringfield will immerse herself in a multitude of cultures — all without leaving small-town Waynesville, North Carolina.

Stringfield works for the Folkmoot International Festival, a dance showcase where dancers from about 10 countries come to live communally for several weeks during the summer and give performances. She’s been a guide for the past two years, spending 24 hours a day with groups from Germany and Canada. This year, she’s helping to orchestrate the entire event.

It’s a big thing to pull off, and there’s lots to do in the weeks leading up to the groups’ arrival. Stringfield does it all. This week alone, she spent three hours making beds in rooms at the old Hazelwood Elementary School, where the groups stay. She set clocks in the cafeteria to each of the group’s time zones, then neatly labeled them so they’ll know what time it is at home. She’s put together spreadsheets and mailing lists — basically, whatever needs to be done.

“It changes daily, but that’s what I like about it,” says the Davidson College sophomore.

Working behind the scenes is much different from her job as a guide, says Stringfield.

“I think it gives me a new appreciation for everything that has to be done before the groups get here. Before, everything was already worked out,” she says. “It makes you realize that the meat of a production takes a lot of effort and a lot of time.”

Stringfield’s role as a guide was just as important. In that position, she was in charge of figuring out where her group needed to be and what the needed to do. She also helped show groups around the area — something that gave her a newfound appreciation for her hometown.

“You kind of get to see where you live from the tourist perspective,” says Stringfield. “It makes you appreciate where you’re from when you see everything through the eyes of a foreigner.”

Stringfield has formed strong bonds with some of the Folkmoot dancers.

“(Working with them) made me realize that we’re definitely not that different. The interactions are the same among cultures,” she says. “The only reason I wouldn’t do Folkmoot is that you’re crying by the time people leave. You get really close in the two weeks they’re here.”

Of course, Stringfield likes the memories she has from Folkmoot too much to not take part. One of her favorites is when her parents invited the German group over for a cookout. The dancers ended up doing an imitation of the dance from the Full Monty movie, with raincoats, in the front yard.

“It was weird, but so funny,” she remembers.