Start Date: May 15th, 2023

End Date: August 4th, 2023

Compensation: $640 a week paid every two weeks. Travel costs to the site and back home are covered by the program. 

Application Due: February 6th, 2023

The Resource Assistants Program seeks to engage ethnically and racially diverse young professionals in natural resource careers.

Must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident.

All interns must be fully vaccinated for covid-19 prior to the start of their internship.

Please Apply HERE

Position Description:

Goals of the Don’t Fill the Landfill project include restarting a languished recycling program; re-educating the residents, employees, and visitors of the park on recycling and reduction of solid waste; and demonstrating reductions in solid waste output and increased recycling tonnage to increase diversion from landfills.  

This project will provide the intern with hands-on experience in managing a solid waste/recycling program, including outreach and training, working with a variety of business and nonprofit entities to accomplish the park’s goals; producing a report on recycling behaviors in the park; utilizing creative skills to produce attractive outreach materials with a variety of options for reaching a large audience; and providing a great experience with the NPS.

Potential Schedule with work tasks

Week 1 Park and NPS orientation; MSW system orientation; on-boarding

Week 2 Develop collection of ideas for Grand Canyon School recycled art projects for public display

Week 3 Data collection plan-focus on visitor and residential behavior; school recycling program and art project development

Week 4 Data collection multiple locations; Research Subaru/ZLI outreach materials from other parks; select materials to produce

Week 5 Data collection, research, and analysis; develop outreach and training materials 

Week 6 Analyze data; outline for recycling analysis/recommendations report

Week 7 Finalize outreach and training materials; finalize recycling analysis/recommendations report

Week 8 Potential presentation of intern experience, accomplishments and 

deliverables achieved for park management. 

Week 9 Complete projects to the extent possible (could be deliverable or hand-off).

Week 10 Leadership workshop (may occur at any time during internship)

Week 11 Presentation to park management on project results. 

Deliverables: 

– Program document for the Recycled Art project for Grand Canyon School

– Brief report on recycling patterns at key locations in the park

– Development of outreach materials. Creativity is encouraged!  Podcasts, media posts, YouTube videos, labeling, posters, training. The intern will work with Interpretive Media experts on the types and best means of communicating the Don’t Feed the Landfill project goals. 

– Presentation to park management on the intern’s experience

  Intern Qualifications: 

Interns selected for the NPSCF Program should possess:

• Demonstrated leadership skills and experience
• Strategic thinking ability
• The ability to self-start/work independently
• Flexibility/resourcefulness
• The ability to adapt new skills and ideas to the public sector

The intern should have environmental science or sustainability courses or a strong interest if majored in another discipline.  The project requires data collection on recycling behaviors (potential GIS data), skills in creating outreach/marketing products using a variety of media, good communications skills. Art background may be useful to assist the art teacher with the project for the school.

Physical/Natural Environment: Grand Canyon National Park, South Rim is 7,000′ in elevation which requires some acclimatization. Grand Canyon Village is a small town of 2,500 residents plus 6 million visitors. We have a grocery store, a post office, clinic, churches, a community center, a paved trail system around the village, and a free shuttle system. The nearest towns are Williams and Flagstaff. There is a strong Latino community in Flagstaff, but Grand Canyon also has many Latino residents.

Work Environment: Most of the intern’s work will be in an office setting. Data collection will require outdoor work in the developed area of the South Rim.  In the summer, temperatures can reach into the 90s on the rim and up to 120 degrees at the bottom at Phantom Ranch. Monsoon activity starts in July and ends in September, bringing regular heavy rain and thunderstorms