Calling All Summer and Long-term Interns!

We've just submitted a whole host of requests from the Student Conservation Association for interns during the 2010 season. If you're looking for an opportunity to get your foot in the door with some very exciting programs, here's your chance! These internships range from 12 weeks to 8 months in length, and encompass the whole range of activities at Mount Rainier National Park. I'll post links to the specific position announcements as they are added to SCA's database, but some of these are too new to be on the site yet. Follow this link to search for positions with the keyword of "Rainier" in the description: that should capture the whole list! Meanwhile, here's a summary of what we've requested so far:

Camping Adventures Assistant (link pending): Help lead five "Camping Adventures with My Parents" (CAMP) programs, providing introductory camping experiences to diverse families from the Seattle and Tacoma urban areas! This 12-week position will begin around June 7.

Citizen Science Coordinator: Recruit, train, and lead citizen volunteers on projects in the park's wilderness, including amphibian surveys, wetland mapping, and soundscape monitoring! This is a 12-week position starting about June 28.

Meadow Rover Manager (link pending): Help manage the popular Meadow Rover program at Paradise, whose participants patrol and mark trails, educate visitors, and protect the beautiful subalpine meadows by keeping visitors on the trails. We hope to hire a 6 month intern beginning mid-April.

Preventative Search and Rescue Ranger: Patrol the trails above Paradise, assisting hikers and maintaining trails. Help with search and rescue events, but through education, try to prevent them! This 12-week position begins approximately May 23.

Restoration Interns: Serve on the park's revegetation crews planting native plants at sites around Paradise. You'll be working alongside a lot of volunteers! These 12-week positions will begin around June 7.

Trails Volunteer Coordinator (link pending): Work with the park's trail crew to repair and rebuild trails all over the park, and help recruit, train, and lead volunteer groups to help. Past volunteer work crews have included employee organizations, church groups, Boy Scouts, and environmental clubs. This 16-week position begins about May 17.

Urban Outreach Assistant (link pending): Help plan and organize this summer's urban outreach program at Mount Rainier, including the new and exciting "Camping Adventures with My Parents" (CAMP) program. Build partnerships, recruit and train participants, and organize 3-day camping experiences for families who've never been camping before! This will be as much as an 8-month position beginning in early February.

Visitor Services Interns (Ohanapecosh and Paradise): Work alongside Mount Rainier's interpretive rangers, staffing visitor centers and leading interpretive walks and talks! These 12-week positions begin May 24.

Volunteer Coordinator Intern: Help lead Mount Rainier's growing volunteer program, which last summer worked with 1,865 people! For those of you who've been following the blog and saw the many postings by Nick Abel, this is the readvertisement of his position. The 6-month position begins around May 3.

One caveat on all of these positions: most, so far, do not have confirmed funding, though all of them stand a good chance of being funded one way or another. Don't wait to apply!

If you're a geology student, don't miss the possibility of applying for Geoscientist-in-Parks positions, for which the Geologic Society of America is now accepting applications for a brief period. And watch for other SCA positions to be announced as well. Other positions we're considering include a long-term Education Internship; a Living History Coordinator; a Maintenance Volunteer Coordinator; a Safety Intern; and high school crews through SCA's Conservation Leadership Corps. Stay tuned!