September 6, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Photograph courtesy of the Student Conservation Association
Even though more and more young Americans are volunteering, they still need a bit of a push to unplug from their laptops, iPods, cellphones, and video games, go outside, and “get their hands dirty,” says Dale Penny, chief executive of the Student Conservation Association.
Seeking to inspire a new generation of environmental leaders, the 50-year-old organization, founded by a young Vassar College alumna, has ushered tens of thousands of young people through its conservation programs and internships nationwide.
Participants work with park rangers, nonprofit groups, and government agencies to help build trails and bridges, protect wildlife habitats, and complete other projects in all 50 states, learning leadership skills along the way. They also gain experience in archaeology, biology, environmental education, wildlife management, and zoology.
High-school students take part in tuition-free programs that last from 15 to 35 days. College students and graduates work as expenses-paid interns for up to a year. As many as 60 percent of the organization’s alumni end up in conservation jobs as adults, but even those that choose another career path, Mr. Penny says, “become environmental stewards in their communities, or businesses, or whatever they do.”
Most of the Student Conservation Association’s annual budget of $26-million comes from government and other land-management groups, and from foundations and companies (which each produce a quarter of the charity’s revenue).
The intense work and shared responsibilities, says Mr. Penny, mean that each crew forms “a little microcosm of society, so everybody has to learn to be a citizen.”
Here, 16-year-old Sarah Logan Beasley, the group’s 50,000th volunteer, works on the Deep Creek Trail, at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
