Grand Teton National Park

Allen’s wife, also a park ranger, discovered that her co-worker at Grand Teton, John Tobiason ’02, also graduated from Frostburg State. And then they found they were also neighbors.

Small world - two FSU grads with two very different responsibilities at one beautiful national park.

Allen, a parks and recreation major from Allegany County, Md., left Frostburg and worked in Sarasota, Fla., as a lifeguard on Siesta Key before working at state parks in Maryland and moving on to national parks including Glacier, Cape Hatteras and finally Grand Teton.

Tobiason, a graphic design major from Bel Air, Md., began as an intern at the Government Publishing Office in Washington, D.C., during his senior year at FSU. This led to a full-time gig as a graphic designer and technical marketing specialist with the U.S. Government working on such projects as presidential inaugurations, congressional books and other high-profile assignments. He moved into the National Park Service arena at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., as a digital media strategist, developing some of the first mobile apps for the National Mall, Philadelphia, Boston, Yellowstone and Grand Teton, where he and his wife, Julie Petr Tobiason ’02, relocated to in 2016.

SA: Occupational Safety and Health manager. Preventing workplace injuries and illnesses; preventing the suffering that these events can cause our employees, their families and to improve overall wellbeing.

JT: I’m the creative director and designer. I manage our Media Collective which designs visitor-facing media including visitor center exhibits, publications, maps, signage, trailheads, outdoor exhibits, website, park mobile app and social media.

SA: Yes, the woods were my church. Also, I fell in love with the ocean and surfing, and spent a couple of decades working at Assateague Island National Seashore after graduation from FSU.

JT: Working for the National Park Service is an amazing opportunity I only really dreamed of, until chance led me to being able to marry my passion for outdoors with design. Working at a national park, especially Grand Teton, is like no other job. You get to live and work in an ecosystem full of vibrant wildlife, towering mountains and amazing dedicated rangers from all walks of life.

SA: A professor once said, “Stay true to your values as you navigate your field and things will fall into place.” I took that to heart and took comfort in that principle when I was in doubt about the future.

JT: Attending Frostburg cemented my love for the arts and design. The Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Frostburg opened up the world of all the arts to me of which I’m still a practitioner including ceramics, painting and photography. The Graphic Design program pushed me to develop a style, work ethic and quality I still use today as a designer for the National Park Service.

SA: Maybe sometimes. Different strokes for different folks. They come visit and get “the tour.” Sometimes I am jealous of them especially when I climb into their sailboat...As I get older, I appreciate the cultural benefits a city has to offer. You know, concerts, fine wine and food, shows and ethnic diversity. When I visit a city, I always make sure it has a bike trail though. The tropics have a magnetism that is hard to escape. Costa Rica is a favorite and the warm, clear waters of Hawaii and Palau are pretty hard to beat.