If you are an undergraduate or graduate student of color and you’re looking for an exciting career opportunity, then look no further than the National Park Service Academy [1].
The Academy is a joint program between SCA and the National Park Service designed to introduce diverse students from across the country to career opportunities with the National Parks. Its goal is to build a 21st Century workforce for America's national parks: highly motivated, contemporarily skilled, and ethnically diverse.
Check out this video from last year’s NPS Academy orientation [2] at Grand Teton National park and see how excited students became about new career opportunities in the great outdoors.
To achieve the NPS Academy goals, the program has three phases.
Phase 1: Academy Launch and Orientation, Spring Break 2012. Students begin their journey into the US National Park Service with a week-long, insider's view into how our natural lands are managed. This year’s orientation locations include Grand Teton National Park [3], during the week of March 5th, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park [4], during the week of March 12th.
Phase 2: Summer Internship, Summer 2012. Students will gain hands-on conservation experience by serving in a 12-week paid summer internship focusing on issues ranging from environmental education, resource conservation, volunteer coordination, trail maintenance, research, and others.
Phase 3: Outreach, Fall 2012. Finally, participants serve as Academy Ambassadors by reaching out to fellow students on their campuses about their experience.
For more information on the NPS Academy or to apply, check out the Academy webpage [1]. Through SCA, you can be a part of the next generation of National Park Service employees.