For UW graduate Hailey Sorg, the outdoor recreation and tourism field provided a pathway to building a rewarding career in the state she calls home.
“Wyoming is so special,” Hailey Sorg said to me with a smile spreading across her face. “Every single town in Wyoming holds something so special.” Her love for her hometown of Douglas, WY was tangible. “Douglas is like the perfect little slice of Wyoming heaven… there’s so much access to get outside.” Hailey recalled childhood memories of hiking with her family, visiting Glendo State Park, floating the North Platte River, and visiting the museums and historic sites around Douglas.
Today Hailey is thrilled to still call Douglas home, though her pathway to building her career there wasn’t always obvious. “A lot of other people my age struggle to be able to stay in Wyoming,” she told me. Her remark feels especially timely as reports continue to show Wyoming’s youth leaving the state for career opportunities elsewhere.
It was a Wyoming Girls State trip to Cheyenne the summer before her senior year of high school that unexpectedly opened the door to Hailey’s future career. There, she met Wyoming State Parks employees, including Laramie District Manager Christina Bird. “I think Christina is the person who got me into this field,” Hailey reflects. “I called my mom immediately after and I was like, ‘Mom, I want to work for Wyoming State Parks. I know what I want to do. I want to go work in museums. I want to work in tourism.’”
Soon after that fateful trip to Cheyenne, Hailey enrolled in the University of Wyoming’s newly established Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Management (ORTM) degree, which was created to meet the needs of the state’s growing outdoor recreation and tourism industry. Hailey was part of the second cohort of ORTM graduates. She credits the mentorship of her professors as foundational to her experience. “Dan McCoy was a huge part of my- and I think every ORTM student’s- legacy,” she shared, naming a long list of additional professors who remain part of her journey today. Building relationships with industry partners around the state was another key element of her time in the program. In thinking back to her transition from her undergraduate studies to the workforce, Hailey shared, “It was so great because there were so many people around the state that I had already met when I was a student.”
After graduating, Hailey moved back to Douglas for a position with Wyoming State Parks at the Pioneer Memorial Museum. She also earned her master’s degree from Drexel University in Arts Administration and Museum Leadership during this time. Soon after completing her master’s program, she came across a posting for a UW Extension Educator role with the WORTH Initiative (now the Jay Kemmerer WORTH Institute). When Hailey learned that her former professor, Dr. Dan McCoy, directed WORTH, she was further incentivized to apply. Hailey was thrilled to step into the Extension Educator role a short time later- a position that allowed her to expand on the skills she’d gained through her ORTM degree, elevate outdoor recreation and tourism in Wyoming, and, importantly, stay in Douglas.
As an Extension Educator, Hailey worked on initiatives designed to connect residents to outdoor recreation and tourism opportunities close to home. “The outdoors and tourism are for everyone,” she shared. Promoting that message while helping communities access the training, education, and connections to support the industry locally was, for her, incredibly rewarding. Hailey remained in this role for three and a half years and developed a real love for her work with WORTH, as well as the communities that she worked with around the state.
Most recently, Hailey began a new role with the Douglas Recreation Center as a Youth Program Supervisor. Her vision for this role includes integrating outdoor recreation into the center’s programming. “I’m just trying to bring in all of the stuff that I’ve learned from outdoor rec, tourism management, my master’s degree, and from WORTH,” she told me, “… I’m excited to pour into the community that poured into me first.”
Reflecting on her career thus far, Hailey shared, “It’s so amazing and shocking to me that throughout my career path and since graduating, every single position I’ve held has been tied back to my degree program.” When asked what gives her hope for the industry’s future, she pointed to the room for creativity and growth. “There’s a bright future for outdoor recreation and tourism in Wyoming and I hope that we just continue to encourage kids to stay here. And even if they don’t, come get your great degree from Wyoming, go somewhere else, come back later, or share about the great stuff that you learned here in Wyoming!”
As a closing thought, Hailey reflected on something she’d observed through her networking and travel while working for WORTH: people around the U.S. in the outdoor recreation and tourism field often look to Wyoming as an example. “People are looking to Wyoming for what WORTH is doing, for what UW Extension is doing, and also just for what our industry is doing. Because we’re something really special and people want to know, ‘how is Wyoming doing that? How can we be like Wyoming?’ That’s something that I heard so many times that I think is such a huge compliment.” As Hailey’s story illustrates, that reputation is well-earned. Wyoming’s outdoor recreation and tourism field doesn’t just offer economic opportunity for the state, but also a pathway for younger generations to build fulfilling careers close to home.
