Start/End Dates: May 12, 2024 - August 2, 2024
Compensation: $600 per week + housing
Application Due: February 6, 2024
Fish and Feathers Internship Program seeks to engage ethnically and racially diverse young professionals in natural resource careers.
You must be (additional requirement):
* A personal vehicle is recommended for this position.
Position Description:
Fish and Feathers is a program funded by the National Park Service (NPS) and administered by Environment for the Americas. Our goal is to provide our national park partners with talented interns who are eager to learn and to engage with local communities. The intern will focus on supporting, implementing, and leading community outreach programs that focus on fishing and birding activities. The overall goal is to increase diverse community engagement with NPS partners during the program and in years to come.
Responsibilities:
Qualifications:
Major studies relevant to this position:
Successful candidates will have a background and/or coursework in the following areas or a strong interest in the outdoors with experience fishing and/or birdwatching.
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About this Site:
In recent years, park staff, partners, interns, and volunteers have collaborated to build a stronger environmental education program and to increase the number of nature-based recreational opportunities in the Blackstone Valley. A team of stewards have joined with park staff to offer guided bird walks, nature hikes, and fishing days. Building upon the success of these events, the Park is seeking to connect more people from historically underserved populations with the Blackstone River and other environmental resources.
Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park has a strong track record of hiring, retaining, and mentoring interns. The Park provides people new to the NPS, or new to the workforce, with well-defined internship tasks and deliverables. An intern hired with this Park will be expected to staff Park and community partner events, to track visitor contacts (formal and informal), and to use pre-existing educational materials in programs. In addition to writing content for the park website on environmental topics and creating social media posts, the intern will spend considerable time out in the community. This outreach work will involve the Park’s two Junior Ranger programs, the Junior Angler program, and a customized Junior Birder program. The intern will also be expected to develop programs using the birding book, which is designed to introduce a new generation of people to birding.
Additionally, the selected intern will participate in at least 10 fishing events over the course of the summer. These fishing events are all open to the public but may focus on different groups, such as summer camps and Blue Star Families. At all public-facing events, the intern will serve as a front-line representative of the park, answering questions and promoting park events. The intern will also develop educational talks and walks related to birding and environmental education based on their own strengths and interests.
One of the sites where the intern will spend considerable time is in Pawtucket, RI, which is home to approximately 75,000 people. One third of those residents identify as being of African American or Hispanic descent. Nearly one in five people live below the poverty line in the city. Beyond Pawtucket, many residents in the Blackstone Valley are concentrated in census tracts with very high Environmental Justice Index (EJI) numbers. A key part of this internship will be continued outreach to these underserved communities, fostering recreational opportunities which will create a new generation of park stewards.
A top priority of the park is creating quality interpretive and recreational programs with and for people throughout the Blackstone Valley. The intern will develop new citizen-science programs and engage in outreach with local youth. The intern’s projects would be supported by a tight network of partner organizations and a broad coalition of volunteers who serve as stewards of the Blackstone River. Local non-profit groups, such as the Friends of the Blackstone and the Blackstone Watershed Collaborative, are keen to support and work with environmental interns. Across the Valley, there is amazing work that could be done to cultivate another generation of stewards.
Interns in this program will receive 480 hours towards Public Land Corps (PLC) Hiring Authority. See below on information about:
Public Land Corps Non-Competitive Hiring Authority (PLC)
The Public Land Corps Non-Competitive Hiring Authority is a special hiring authority available to qualifying interns. The intern must be between the ages of 18 and 30 years old, inclusive, or a veteran up to age 35 and complete 640 hours of work on an appropriate conservation project to be eligible for this hiring authority. Upon successful completion of the PLC project(s), the intern is eligible for two years to be hired non-competitively into a federal seasonal, term, or permanent position. The applicant must apply to a PLC-eligible position advertised on USAJobs.gov and selected off a non-competitive certificate of eligibility. For more information, see DOI Personnel Bulletins 11-02 , 12-13, and 17-03.
EEO Statement
Environment for the Americas provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employmentand prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
This job is closed.