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Growing Gardens is a human services and youth development organization based in Boulder, Colorado. Growing Gardens’ mission is to enrich the lives of Boulder County residents through environmentally sustainable gardening programs that empower people to experience a direct and deep connection with plants, the land and each other.
The Children’s Peace Garden Program teaches children environmental stewardship, nutrition education, respect for diversity, and creative self expression to nurture a healthy, happy and well balanced child. Over 1,400 diverse children from 4-10 years of age, through experiential hands-on activities, will learn about local organic gardening practices, the garden as the source of food one eats and how to prepare simple, nutritious food from the garden. Children will develop a sense of community with others as well as the environment through the process of gardening and explore new ideas about the importance of biodiversity in the garden and diversity in one’s community.
Environmental Education Assistant Duties
Instructing Field Trips and Classroom Visits
- Work closely with the Children’s Peace Garden director to teach the following gardening skills during one day field trips to the garden site and visits to local schools:
- Community
- Plants and Planting
- Insects and Pollination
- Composting
- Harvesting and Eating
- Assist with marketing for spring programming
- Train volunteers as they teach in the garden
- Learn organic gardening skills and practices
- Lead volunteer groups in the garden to assist in the upkeep of the garden environment
- Manage field trips and volunteer activities independently by the end of the internship
- Work with director to develop an end of the season celebration event for the Children’s Peace Garden participants, parents, teachers, volunteers and neighbors
Developing and implementing experiential based gardening curriculum
for children
- Work closely with director with director to develop new gardening curriculum.
- Assist with development of training day in the Children’s Peace Garden for ¡Cultiva! teens who will be teaching during summer camps
- Mentor ¡Cultiva! teens participants who will assist with developing summer camp activities
- Develop and evaluate surveys to measure the effectiveness of the curriculum implemented
Knowledge and Skills the Intern May Acquire
- Organic garden preparation
- Plant care
- Sowing and transplanting
- Vegetable harvesting
- Teaching skills
- Curriculum development
- Research Skills
- Communication skills
- Presentation skills
Structure of Internship
- Internship duration is February 15 – May 15
- Intern position is 20 hours per week.
- Intern will be working closely with a Mentor from Growing Gardens’ staff who will oversee all daily activities.
- Orientation meeting with all GG interns, mentor, intern supervisor and additional GG staff.
- Interns will meet with GG supervisor every other week for the duration of the contract.
- Interns will report at Staff Meetings once per month -- 3 total.
- Interns will have the opportunity to shadow other GG staff to learn about each program.
- Learning Objectives Contract -- Developed by second week of internship. This includes: position description, educational objectives, learning activities and skill development
- Evaluation -- A midpoint evaluation and end of internship evaluation will include intern self evaluation, supervisor and mentor evaluation
Benefits of Interning with Growing Gardens
- Hands-on experience making a positive impact in the lives of children
- Friendly, relaxed environment
- Good experience; develops marketable skills
- Classroom training offered through Intro to Organic Gardening class
- Fresh, organic, delicious veggies to take home every week
- Access to a wide variety of organic seeds
- Garden is located with easy access to public transportation
We are looking for someone who enjoys working with teens, children and adult volunteers. No experience in gardening is required, but the intern should enjoy working in outside and be able to serve as a mature, healthy role model for children and teens. Our staff and youth enjoy their time together in the garden and we’d love for someone with a sense of humor to join us while we have fun and do good work.
To apply:
Send completed application and updated resume to Annie Sweeney at
Download application form