Growing Leaders: Support the K-12 Environmental Education Internship

This Giving Tuesday, help us raise $10,000 to fund a K-12 Environmental Education Intern.

The Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum (MBGNA) K-12 Environmental Education Intern provides a university-level student the opportunity to:

• Lead K-12 field trips and other youth environmental education and place based learning
• Develop & implement nature based and sustainability activities for youth with diverse backgrounds
• Promote stewardship and relationship building with the natural world through interactive engagement and experiential learning
  

Children are an integral part of the MBG community, and with the help of the K-12 Environmental Education Intern, we are uniquely positioned to provide a Life-Changing Education for the intern and youth alike. Interns work directly with youth, families, and educators, providing activities, unstructured nature play, and environmental education for visiting students.

Roughly one-third of the 3,600 K-12 students who visit yearly come from Title I schools, and many of them come from diverse cultural backgrounds and may not speak English. The K-12 Education Intern especially focuses on making these students feel welcome despite a language difference.

Teachers of students who attend field trips at Matthaei Botanical Gardens frequently remark that the program is “outstanding” and that all students are engaged, which is “quite the achievement”. The K-12 Environmental Education Intern is absolutely integral in the planning of these engaging field trips, working with students to honor foodways, build community, and connect with nature.

This internship provides university-level students with opportunities to:

• Participate in experiential learning in a nature-based organization
• Directly contribute to strategic operations of a mission-driven organization
• Help unify and catalyze equity and justice across lands, waters, and dynamic systems

With hands-on experience and having built invaluable skills, interns are able to continue in their academic and professional journeys with a strong foundation, knowing that their work has positively impacted the next generation of environmental stewards. Many previous interns have shared that this experience was truly life changing, providing them with more direction and focus in their career path.

This is an incredibly unique opportunity, intersecting environmental stewardship, education, and social impact. The benefits of this internship are wide reaching - affecting the education and experience of a university student, the youth they interact with throughout the duration of their internship, and the overall community at Matthaei Botanical Gardens. Now, more than ever, it’s important to support opportunities like these which improve well-being for so many.