3 minute read
Prepared to Lead: National Park Superintendent Tina Cappetta '88
by David F. Salter
Tina Cappetta '88
“At every stage of my career, I’ve looked at the next step, and I’ve said, I might like to do that job…which is the next one. That’s how I became a division chief, supervising a team of people. Then I looked at Superintendent, which is managing a whole park. I was in a training program for three months, and I said, yeah, I want to do this.”
Such has been the wonderful and interesting career of Tina Cappetta ’88, who’s worked for the National Park Service since she was a student at Delone Catholic. Now the Superintendent at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park in Maryland, Cappetta has ventured into a variety of positions at a variety of parks in a variety of states. She began her career as a Park Ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park and worked there during college. She’s been all over the country since then, but she says she owes her career to her Delone Catholic guidance counselor.
“My career path started with Mr. (John T.) Miller (’65), the guidance counselor,” Cappetta said. “I was in Open Campus study hall, and he came in and he said, ‘I got this letter from the National Parks Service about a fellowship job and I think you sound like the perfect candidate.’ I said I’d really like this. And I’ve been with the NPS for over 34 years.”
Cappetta believes the two most important traits to do what she does is her love of history and good communication skills. She also participated in Mock Trial and Model UN when she was on the McSherrystown campus. That has taken her to posts in places like Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota, the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y., and Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine.
“For me, it’s about being able to affect change on a larger scale,” Cappetta explained. “I’m really committed to protecting parkland and the things that are associated with them and telling those stories. I love providing opportunities for Americans, and people from around the world, to really connect with those things.”
“There are more than 400 national parks,” Cappetta continued. “And there’s something special about each of those parks. There is something for everyone there, and I encourage people to explore. They are there for people’s enjoyment and for future generations.”
Cappetta’s current post is a park full of history. It has a canal that’s 184.5 miles long, so it contains transportation history, the history of the people who built that canal and the people who lived along the canal. It also has 200 threatened and endangered plant species, along with lots of geology. The park receives more than five million visitors a year and is a top-10 national park. Cappetta never forgets how it all started.
“I got a great education at Delone Catholic,” Cappetta concluded. “I started at Gettysburg while I was a student at Delone, and it prepared me with the skills I needed to be comfortable with public speaking. It was the 125th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. I was thrown right into the mix with large crowds and lots of chaos. It really was my preparation at Delone that allowed me to jump right in…sink or swim. And I swam.”
Tina Cappetta celebrates the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Md.
