Get Involved
The Kahle/Austin Foundation has generously underwritten the Youth Internship Program in honor of their son Logan Kahle who participated in the program for four years and has now graduated from Cornell University.
Youth Naturalist Internship Program
San Francisco Nature Education provides interactive environmental education programs that develop leadership and stewardship in youth and adults. Our school programs focus on providing educational enrichment to students from underserved communities. We use local parks as natural classrooms to observe local and migratory birds and to provide inspiring and engaging natural experiences.
Our overarching goal is to create tomorrow’s environmental stewards and leaders by inspiring a life-long love of nature.
- Our interns learn about environmental conservation, and natural history.
- Our interns complete a research project on a relevant topic at the site they have chosen.
- Our interns serve as naturalists guiding and educating the general public.
Our Youth Naturalist Internship Program runs year-round and is synchronized with the school-year. Student interns must be in 6th, 7th or 8th grade, high school or college to apply.
We provide training and supply our interns with binoculars, field guides, and resource materials. Each of our interns is assigned to an experienced naturalist mentor.
In March, we conduct training for the Heron Watch Program. Our interns provide guided observation of the nests through high-powered spotting scopes and answer questions. Over 1000 children and adults attend this program annually.
The training program feature:
- Education by naturalists to learn local birds.
- Collecting data.
- Sketching the birds in their habitat.
- Communicating their knowledge of the local birds with the public.
- Writing reports for the SF Nature Newsletter.
- Habitat restoration for one Saturday at Strawberry Hill - Stow Lake during the spring program.
Download application: Microsoft Word (.doc) | Acrobat (.pdf)
Click here to watch a video where interns share their experience with our internship program.
Learn more about being an intern at Crissy Field and Heron's Head Park.
Interns learn about bird anatomy from |
Interns set up their scopes for the public. |
Photo credit: SFNE 2012
