2025 Environment and Policy Internships (EPIC): National Park Service

Job Title: Interpretive Volunteer Intern
Department/Team: Tuolumne Meadows Interpretive Team at the National Park Service
Location: In-person at Yosemite National Park, Tuolumne Meadows (housing provided, see Logistics section for details)
Duration: 40 hours per week for ten weeks over the summer
Reports to: Karen Amstutz, Supervisory Park Ranger Naturalist
Areas of Interest: Natural history, poetry, nature writing, immersion in wilderness
*Please include two references and their contact information with your cover letter

About the National Park Service:

The National Park Service Organic Act is a federal law that established the National Park Service (NPS) in 1916. The act's mission is to conserve the scenery, wildlife, and natural and historic objects of the parks, and to provide for their enjoyment in a way that leaves them unimpaired for future generations.

About Yosemite National Park, Tuolumne Meadows:

This internship will be in-person at Yosemite National Park, Tuolumne Meadows, one of the largest high-elevation meadows in the Sierra Nevada at 8,600 feet, with the Tuolumne River meandering quietly through its meadow channel against a backdrop of rugged mountain peaks and glacially carved domes.

Tuolumne Meadows embodies the high-country of the Sierra Nevada, with its broad sub-alpine meadows and granite domes and peaks. The Tuolumne River, Lyell Fork, and Dana Fork flow through the vast, colorful meadows bursting with seasonal wildflowers. The meadows are surrounded by stands of western white pine, mountain hemlock, and lodgepole pine.

Tuolumne Meadows is accessible due to the park roadway that crosses the southern edge of the meadow. From this point all the way to the south of Mt. Whitney, no other roads cross the High Sierra. Thus, this roadway marks the northern end of the largest contiguous roadless wilderness in the continental United States.

Within Tuolumne Meadows, visitors see the Tuolumne River meandering quietly through its meadow channel and cascading over the granite river bottom against a backdrop of rugged mountain peaks and glacially carved domes. The river, declared by Congress a Wild and Scenic River in 1984, originates in the high country near the east side of the park.

Position Description/Scope of Work:

The intern will work alongside the park ranger naturalist staff at the visitor center desk offering answers to questions, guidance and trip planning for visitors to Yosemite National Park. Other duties will include roving popular trails and talking with visitors on trails, helping with projects like setting up for programs at Parsons Memorial Lodge, helping write up descriptive summaries of Parsons programs, creating a "pop-up" program to be offered to visitors and developing and offering a 15-minute interpretive talk about Tuolumne Meadows for visitors. The intern will have training and coaching throughout the season.

The intern will be an integral part of the Park Ranger Naturalist team, living and working in community and doing work that enables the programs to reach visitors to the park. The team consists of the supervisor, park ranger staff of 7-10 rangers, and other volunteers (2-4). This is an in-person internship with 50% field work and 50% indoor/office work. The intern will work a “flex” schedule with a bi-weekly 3-day weekend.

List of Projects/Activities: 

• Interact professionally with the public at busy visitor center front desk
• Rove the campground, scenic viewpoints and trails in uniform, providing information and insights to visitors
• Help with relevant projects as needed
• Attend all Parsons Memorial Lodge Summer Series programs, take notes and write 1-page summary essays for each program.
• Help with Parsons programming
• Create and present a 15 minute interpretive talk
• Research, develop and present longer walks and talks if and when ready
• Develop and present a training for a staff meeting, on topic of choice

Benefits:

• Live and work in Tuolumne Meadows
• Training in interpretive skills, public speaking and natural history and related topics
• Observe and experience firsthand the work of interpretive park rangers
• Help accomplish the National Park Service mission (Organic Act of 1916)
• Pursue natural and cultural history education/experience and passions
• Gain interpretive skills
• Expand abilities and knowledge
• Find a new work/life balance
• Be an intrinsic member of the Tuolumne interpretive team
• Meet and help visitors from around the world

Required Skills/Qualifications:

• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work independently
• Willingness to help as needed and work as a team member
• Desire to learn to give high quality interpretive programs
• Open to coaching
• A passion for natural and cultural history
• Open to community living and working 
• The successful intern will also be required to complete a background investigation in order to have access to the program’s government-networked computers 
• First aid certification and a driver's license are also required
• Two years of college education (Junior, Senior, Co-term are preferred)

Logistics: 

• EPIC fellows are required to work full-time (35-40 hours per week) for 10 weeks over the summer, and will receive a stipend of $8,000 - $9,500, depending on financial need. This stipend is intended to help cover living and transportation expenses during the fellowship, which the student is expected to arrange and coordinate. 
• Ideal start date is June 23, 2025. 
• Simple housing accommodations (a tent cabin or campsite shared with one other staff member) is provided at no cost to the intern.
• Transportation: It would be very helpful for the intern to have a car. It is 30 minutes to the nearest grocery store and 30 to 50 minutes from the nearest towns.