Where are they now? Rachel Sicheneder

The Corps was a great two years for Rachel Sicheneder who spent 2012 in Windom as a crew member and 2013 in Marshall as a crew leader. Through multiple different projects including prescribed burns, buckthorn removal, garlic mustard mitigation, and seed collecting Rachel truly enjoyed the opportunity to get outside and meet members of the conservation community.

After her time as a crew leader Rachel headed to the Eastern United States to complete a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. The 142 days of hiking gave her time to think over what she had learned in the Corps and where she wanted to take her life in the future. Ultimately, she decided to commit herself to a different kind of public service; and applied to an Officer Accession program ofthe Coast Guard. In her interview panel the three Officers told her that her time in the Corps was one of the aspects that made her stand out among the other applicants and should not be overestimated. In May of 2015 she graduated Officer Candidate School as an Ensign.

Currently, Rachel is a Junior Lieutenant stationed on the Coast Guard tall ship the EAGLE where she teaches cadets from the Coast Guard Academy, and acts as a diplomatic representative of the military in domestic and foreign ports. She credits her time spent in the Corps as one of the best personal and professional decisions she could have made and is excited to see where her military career will take her next.