Every year, SCA provides training, tools and projects that place motivated teens and young adults in the field to effect changes great and small. How do we measure the effects? Sometimes its through decreased CO2 levels or by the tons of trash collected or in the number of trees planted. Our success is also measured by the lessons learned, the perspective gained and the lives we transform—today and into the future. Often when the SCA project is over, the success story is just beginning. Take a look at some of our most recent accomplishments.
“I try to model a passion for service while working with new volunteers so that I can motivate them.”
“SCA helped me realize that I had a lot of potential, and that I could help change my hometown for the better.”
by Hannah Atkinson, SCA Monarch Intern for Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge
Pollinators across the country need your help! There is increasing evidence that many pollinators are in decline. Healthy populations of monarch butterflies and bees are a reflection of the health of the American landscape and the...
Todd Nelson is the volunteer coordinator at Grand Canyon National Park. We asked him about his career, the National Park Service centennial, and the future of America’s Best Idea.
What solidified it for me was working with college students on alternative [service] spring breaks. The...
SCA celebrated Earth Day and National Park Week joined by 383 community members from across the Bay Area.
In celebration of Earth Day and National Park Week, SCA brought together 370 volunteers in New York City for a Find Your Park Day of Service at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island.
by SCA Intern Jess Landis
SCA has helped tens of thousands of young people launch conservation careers, and Jess Landis will soon be one of them. Jess, an SCA Centennial Volunteer Ambassador at Padre Island National Seashore, just landed a seasonal position as a National Park Service guide at Gulf Islands...
On 4/14/16 we helped host a live Twitter chat on volunteer service in national parks with @natlparkservice @goparks @interior @americanexpress and many, many guests.
Emails don’t ordinarily stop me in my tracks but recently one did: a message from the Clinton Foundation that highlighted a comment from President Bill Clinton in response to this question from a student at UC Berkeley:
“What would you tell your 20-year-old self that many of us in the...
With so may spectacular entries to choose from, it was tough, but we somehow managed to choose a winner and 2 runners up for the Spring 2016 Capture Conservation Photo Contest.
Behold:
“Just as we...
Over the past month, SCA brought together more than 70 alumni to ring in spring with SCA Alumni Events in New York City, the San Francisoco Bay Area, and Washington, DC.
When residents of New York’s Hudson Valley want to know something about bees, Tim Stanley is their go-to guy. He’s a beekeeper, and a veritable expert on the region’s wild bees (which, as you’ll learn, differ substantially from the bees we raise for honey).
We recently interviewed him in an attempt...
by Lauren Kurtz, SCA intern for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
We asked friends of the Student Conservation Association (SCA) to vote for the cover of our 2017 Calendar, and you responded.
More than 3,600 friends and supporters of SCA cast their vote and we couldn’t be more pleased with the final result.
The winning photo features Olympic National...
This month, a diverse group of young conservationists from all over Alaska gathered for a weeklong behind-the-scenes look at what goes into managing Kenai Fjords National Park. For the students involved, the event marked the beginning of their 2016 SCA-NPS Academy experience, which, in addition to this...
“Back then you heard, “You’re not thinking of having women as interns, are you?” Well… we did have women as interns in 1957 and many of them became park superintendents, and rangers and naturalists with the Service.”
SCA Excelsior Conservation Corps members have hit the field for their first hitches at park sites across New York State. Working in five teams of ten members each, the Corps tackles critical conservation projects from New York City to the Adirondacks. SCA Excelsior Project Leaders share some of the best moments — and biggest surprises — during their first days in the field…
