Winter/Spring Education Intern
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is seeking current college students (18+ years old) and recent graduates to fill up to two (2) Education Intern positions. These internships will be around 24 weeks (5.5 months) long, with a tentative start date of Monday, December 28, 2026. The deadline to apply is Sunday, September 20, 2026.
After two weeks of training, interns will assist rangers on the Education Team with daily operations. This will begin with the Winter Experience field trip season, which typically runs through mid-March. The interns will then pivot to spring field trip programs after another round of training, which will carry through the end of the school year in mid-June. Interns will typically work Monday-Friday or Tuesday-Saturday, from 8:00 am - 4:30 pm. The exact start and end date can be slightly flexible, depending on applicant availability.
Duties include, but are not limited to:
- Facilitating outdoor field trips with students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade (with the majority being 3rd-5th grade)
- Snowshoeing up to a mile each day in the winter and hiking up to a couple miles each day in the spring with students and the general public
- Presenting virtual and in-person curriculum-based lessons and activities on topics like ecology, ecosystem health, the National Park Service mission, and local history
- Operating a state-of-the-art mobile planetarium dome during visits to local schools
- Creating original content for the park’s social media platforms
- Staffing popular park events such as Candlelight Hikes and Maple Sugaring Days
Benefits:
- Meal reimbursement of $42 per day (distributed as $588 biweekly)
- Free on-site government housing
- Professional development opportunities with the National Park Service