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Summer Camp Naturalist

Shaver's Creek Environmental Center

Petersburg, Pennsylvania

Job Type Temporary
Salary $11.50 - $11.50 per hour
Benefits Overtime pay above 40 hours worked in a week.
Deadline Apr 21, 2025
Experience 0 - 1 years

Camp naturalists use available resources, prior knowledge, and new ideas to create a lesson plan for their group each camp week. They provide support and leadership opportunities to assistant camp naturalists and Leaders-In-Training (“LITs,” who are teenage volunteers at camp), while ensuring the safety of everyone in the group. Prior experience with children (ideally informal or outdoor education experience) and a growth-oriented mindset are crucial for camp naturalist applicants. This position is a daily blend of education, camp fun, and mentorship.

Benefits of the position

  • Learn and/or gain experience in the following 21st-century skills that are desirable for all jobs you will ever have: critical thinking, creativity, communication, leadership, problem solving, and adaptability.
  • Form connections with peers that outlast the summer.
  • Professional development through sessions at the beginning and throughout the season on a variety of topics aimed at helping you to develop as a whole person
  • Possible internship credit
  • Spend your summer outside in nature.
  • Learn techniques for how to be present and immersed in the moment.
  • Obtain 2-year certifications in First Aid, AED, CPR and Epi-Pens.
  • Gain confidence through growth that you should take with you everywhere.

Gimme the details, please!

  • You will work 47–50 hours each week.
    • Gear for yourself and activities is carried on you (in your backpack or provided pack basket) and is likely to weigh 10–15 lbs.
  • Pay is $11.50/hour for the first 40 hours worked per week. Hours above 40 earn time and a half. Over the course of the summer, this translates to about $4,800 before taxes.
  • Housing may be available for out-of-the-area applicants. (There are a few rooms available; they are filled on need and a first-hire basis.)
  • Training: Monday–Friday, typically 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., for the first two full weeks in June.
    • Training will include certification in First Aid, CPR, AED, and Epi-Pens. (Certification in advance of training is not needed.)
  • Camp week hours worked: Monday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.; Tuesday–Thursday, 8:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Friday, 8:00 a.m.–11:30 p.m.; Saturday (having likely stayed overnight via camping on-site and only three times a summer), 6:00–9:00 a.m.
  • It is ideal if someone can commit to the entire June 2–August 2, 2025, time frame. 
HOW TO APPLY

Apply for Camp Naturalist on the Penn State Careers site

A complete application includes a cover letter (explaining why you want to work at Shaver’s Creek summer camp and corresponding skills), résumé (containing past work history or related positions/experiences), and a list of three references (their name, title, relationship to you, telephone number and email address).

When you apply, please indicate that you are responding to the posting on Conservation Job Board.

Category Environmental Education, Outdoor Recreation
Tags Naturalist