The Outdoor Leader program at the Urban Ecology Center allows youth to get outside, learn about green careers, make friends, and get paid! It is our goal to provide high school students the resources and guidance to make connections within themselves, their communities, and nature. Outdoor Leaders are a part of our Green Career Pathway program, which engages people of all ages, backgrounds, and interests in studies of ecology, volunteerism, environmental justice, and much more.

Your support helps the Urban Ecology Center’s Green Career Pipeline program develop urban leaders with the commitment and the capability to move our community towards a more sustainable future.

Our Green Career Pipeline program starts with school field trips and our Young Scientist Club after-school program, then leads to our High School Outdoor Leader program, which provides two years of job training and paid positions throughout the UEC. Afterwards, students can continue along the path with our paid summer intern programs.

This pathway prepares young people for future employment at organizations with an environmental focus, or even here at the UEC!

In our December 2017 Weekly Guide emails we introduced our supporters and friends to some people they helped connect to the outdoors. We think their stories are pretty awesome so we put them together in case you missed any of the updates. Experience the Urban Ecology Center through the videos below. You'll find a determined teen, a budding butterfly scientist, a Menomonee Valley family, and one of our monthly donors.

Malachi Crenshaw, a 10th grader at Rufus King High School, finished teaching his first solo Water Safety Course when I met him at the Washington Park branch. I asked him if he had been nervous about being the only instructor and he said “I was more curious. I’m pretty comfortable with public speaking and I know the content, so I mostly was interested to see how those would come together.” This is exactly the kind of experience we hope to provide to our High School Outdoor Leaders – hands-on work.

The High School Outdoor Leader program is one step in our “green career pipeline.”

I have said many times before that the Outdoor Leader Program is by far the best first job I could have gotten. Unlike many other jobs, I was not given one-day training and thrown into my work; I was given several weeks to learn. All of the staff that volunteered to train, teach, and work with us were patient and did the best that they could to take care of us and our needs. In the weeks that I was given I created unbreakable bonds and friendships with my coworkers as well as experiences that I never would have gotten anywhere else.

“Twelve high schoolers spending seven days in the wilderness without their cell phones? We will see how this goes!” I thought as we boarded the plane on our way to Wyoming. This adventure is a highlight of our two-year High School Outdoor Leadership internship that introduces teens to environmental careers and gives them solid employment experience they can put on college applications.

Hiking. Backpacking. Campfire cookouts. They sound like great vacation activities, but for the Center's new class of High School Outdoor Leaders, this was all part of the job!

Everyone, no matter their age, can teach, help and learn at the Urban Ecology Center! See for yourself how older adults through teens are mentoring Summer Campers and students who will in turn be the environmental leaders of tomorrow.

Research shows two things make a person environmentally aware – constant contact with nature early in life and a mentor who demonstrates positive behavior toward the environment. With this research in mind, we train interns to be mentors to high schoolers, who in turn become mentors to our Summer Campers.

Come in today to see how your whole family can learn, work and grow at our Center. 

The High School Outdoor Leader Program is a two-year, environmental career internship for teens who have completed grades 9-10. Outdoor Leaders are trained in 8 areas including education, stewardship, research and community relations. In addition, Outdoor Leaders take two week-long research trips. This year they even organized and ran our 2013 Teen Survival Challenge!

Along with Community Program Educator Sam Huenink, I had the pleasure of accompanying the Center’s High School Outdoor Leaders on a trip to the Teton Science School in Jackson, Wyoming. I can attest that it was an amazing trip, full of learning and exploration, but I’ll let Patrick, one of our high school participants explain the rest.  Read on for Patrick McLinden's reflection.