Kittitas Environmental Education Network (KEEN), Summer Camp and Community Programs Internship, Summer 2024
Every summer, The Bill Lane Center for the American West offers many opportunities for Stanford undergraduates (including graduating seniors and co-terms) to work with organizations throughout the West. Through these internships, students can explore careers in natural history, conservation, land use, museum curation, resource management, energy and more.
All internships are full-time for nine to ten weeks during the summer. They are fully funded by the Lane Center with stipends ranging from $7,500 to $10,000.
The Lane Center has placed hundreds of interns in positions across the West since 2005. It has developed strong relationships with host organizations and works hard to ensure interns have successful and enriching experiences.
For more information about the internship program, please visit the FAQs page, or email Education Manager Corinne Thomas.
Details about the summer 2023 cohort of student interns and their placements can be found here.
Student reflections about the internship experience can be found by visiting the Out West student blog and the Lane Center Instagram channel.
Stipend Information:
The Bill Lane Center will provide a base stipend of $7,500 with additional funding for student financial aid and location, if applicable, up to $10,000.
Description of the Organization and the Internship:
The Kittitas Environmental Education Network's mission is to cultivate an active understanding of the impacts of climate change on the endangered shrub-steppe and foster commitment to environmental stewardship by providing culturally relevant nature-based education.
The Kittitas Environmental Education Network (KEEN) is an operating 501(c)3 non-profit in Ellensburg, Washington.
The Nature School programs include a variety of school-year, community and summer day camp options for kids grades K-12 throughout Kittitas County. Our curriculum focuses on being place-based and learner-led, encouraging kids to foster a fascination with the natural world and nurturing a lifelong responsibility for their local community and greater natural spaces.
Culturally responsive and inclusive education is at the heart of environmental education and KEEN is eager to build curricula that acknowledges the caretakers of our land, the peoples of the Yakama Nation, and that reflects the cultural diversity of our county.
KEEN is seeking an intern who is well-versed in K-12 curriculum design and implementation, has experience in planning and facilitating educational programming, and passionate about integrating culturally relevant, inclusive and diverse curricula into informal environmental educational programming.
Our intern will facilitate local Indigenous and immigrant histories and environmental stewardship curricula with fun and educational outdoor activities for kids ages 5-17.
Our intern will work closely with our summer programs supervisor to create, teach, and facilitate this curriculum during KEEN's 6 week-long, themed summer camp sessions.
Our intern will create and facilitate a weekly community education program using KEEN's culturally responsive curricula.
Internship Work Environment:
This is an in-person internship approximately 80% outdoor/field work and 20% indoor/office work per week.
The intern will work directly with the Environmental Education Director Carlyn Saunders, Program Supervisor Jen Smith, and KEEN’s President Jill Scheffer. They will also work alongside summer camp staff.
The intern will work with program supervisor prior to summer camp starting, creating and designing culturally relevant day camp programming and work with environmental education director to create and implement a community education program.
Summer camp days are from 8am-4pm and are 100% outdoors. Community programs are held in city parks and other needed sites and are typically on weekends from 10am-3pm. The intern will divide time between both programs.
Day-to-day tasks include preparing activity materials, documenting program participants, facilitating activities for multi-age groups, safety and emergency management, working with community partners to advertise programming.
Transportation:
While personal transportation would not be required for this internship and ride sharing would be available, it would be helpful to have a reliable vehicle as the location for the outdoor facility is several miles outside of town.
Housing:
There is no on-site housing available for interns. Local housing assistance might be available and last summer's intern wrote that the community is very welcoming.
Location: Ellensburg, Washington
- Plan and facilitate summer camp programming that adheres to place-based, culturally relevant educational topics of central Washington state
- Utilize activities that aline with the "Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty of Washington State"
- Coordinate with local food bank to provide community education programming
Bill Lane Center internships are part of Cardinal Quarter opportunities and students from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. The opportunities are full-time (35-40 hours a week) for 9-10 consecutive weeks during the summer.
Specific start and end dates can be coordinated directly with the supervisor.
All undergraduates of any year, including graduating seniors, are eligible. Graduating seniors are eligible only if they are graduating in spring quarter. Students who have already graduated, e.g., fall or winter quarter of this academic year are not eligible.
Coterms are eligible only if they hold undergraduate status.
For more application advice, please visit the BLC’s FAQs page.
Please note:
- Students are not permitted to engage in another full-time internship, job, or volunteer opportunity (whether funded by Stanford or otherwise) during this full-time, summer internship.
- Student athletes should confirm the impact of any awarded stipend on their athletic eligibility by contacting the Compliance Services Office prior to committing to an internship.
- New Stipend Policy per the U.S. Department of Education: A stipend is considered a resource and it may have an impact on a student’s financial aid. To comply with US Department of Education regulations, student payments, awards, prizes, and gifts that are made available to the student because they are a Stanford student, must be reported to the Financial Aid Office. The Financial Aid Office is responsible for the disbursement of stipend funds to undergraduates. For more information, please visit the Financial Aid Office's webpage about the student stipend policy.
Application Guidelines for this Internship:
This internship would require more advanced knowledge of curriculum design and environmental intersectionality equity and justice work on par with upper-level coursework.
Juniors and seniors preferred but not required.
Required skills:
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Language fluency in Spanish is required
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First aid and CPR are required (training is provided)
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Pursuing coursework in K-12 education and have experience in curriculum design
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Have complete relevant coursework in environmental intersectionality or other DEI work
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Have confident research and presentation skills
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Have experience in informal education and environmental education, such as summer camps or outdoor schools
Desired skills:
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Diversity, equity, and justice studies
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Child development and psychology
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Trauma-informed education strategies
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Lifeguarding certification
Selection of applicants:
Complete applications are screened and finalists are contacted for a first-round interview with staff from The Bill Lane Center for the American West.
The top candidates for the position are then forwarded to the organization for second-round interviews with their potential supervisor and other staff.
Host organizations will then notify the Lane Center of their preferred candidate and that applicant will receive an internship offer from the Bill Lane Center by email.
The applicant is expected to respond promptly (within 48 hours) via email to the offer or the offer will be rescinded.
Once an applicant accepts an offer, they are required to promptly notify all other Stanford and non-Stanford programs to which they have applied that they have accepted another offer and withdraw their candidacy from those other opportunities.