By Karla Vazquez
Trees Atlanta will employ high school students this summer at $8 an hour to work on the Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum. This new program, called the Youth Tree Team, is based on a successful 10-year model from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.
The idea is to bring together students who attend different schools, but who share interests in trees and the environment. The Trees Atlanta staff is targeting high schools along the BeltLine (Grady, Booker T. Washington, and Maynard Jackson) by reaching out to counselors and science teachers at those schools.
The Youth Tree Team offers a great opportunity for 9th-12th graders to learn tree identification, tree care, and prairie restoration and management. Working with new friends from different schools, the team members will develop leadership skills, as well as environmental knowledge. One day each week will be spent in an enrichment activity with community leaders, and there will be regular lunch-and-learn sessions with field professionals.
What a great way to spend the summer: outdoors every day, doing meaningful work that benefits the city, going on field trips, making new friends, and earning money at the same time. Trees Atlanta will benefit by investing in future stewards of our trees.
Encourage high school students to apply as soon as possible. The online application will be followed by a challenge day, tree planting, and an interview to select the candidates. The process will be very competitive: there are only eight positions available to be chosen from a maximum of 100 applications.
For more information, talk to your counselor or science teacher or contact Karla Vazquez at Karla@treesatlanta.org or (404) 681-4891. Visit www.treesatlanta.org/our-programs/youth-day-camps for more information.
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