Student Conservation Association (SCA)
The largest provider of hands-on youth conservation programs in the U.S. High schoolers can join short-term summer conservation crews doing trail building, habitat restoration, and wildlife protection in national parks and community green spaces.
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NCF-Envirothon
North America's largest high school environmental education competition. Teams of five test their knowledge across soils/land use, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and a rotating current environmental issue, plus an oral presentation, progressing from local to state to the international NCF finals.
The Nature Conservancy LEAF Program
Paid summer conservation internships for urban high school students, offering hands-on stewardship work and career exposure with The Nature Conservancy at sites across the country.
Youth Conservation Corps (YCC)
A month-long paid summer program placing teens in national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and hatcheries for conservation work including trail maintenance, ecological monitoring, and invasive plant removal.
Dinosaur Academy (Wyoming Dinosaur Center)
Dinosaur Academy is a 5-day, in-depth course at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center for students in grades 9-12 focused on vertebrate fossils of the Morrison Formation. Students get classroom instruction plus hands-on field excavation and laboratory work covering fossil preparation, mapping, specimen identification, and museum display techniques.
EarthEcho International Youth Leadership Council
A competitively-selected leadership council (ages 15-22) founded by Philippe Cousteau Jr. that leads campaigns and programs on ocean and water conservation.
Introduction to Fossils - High School Paleontology Intensive (Museum of the Rockies)
Introduction to Fossils is a week-long, high-school-level paleontology intensive at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. Students work alongside paleontology experts to learn field and lab skills and travel to a nearby Montana fossil site to explore the region's geology.