Summer Camp Naturalist

University of Washington Botanic Garden’s Youth and Family Education has an outstanding opportunity open for a Temporary Summer Camp Naturalist. This position will Lead and teach thematic environmental education programs for 1st-8th grade campers, integrating science, social-emotional learning, team building, art, and play. Serve as mentors to high school volunteers and interns. Summer Naturalists will lead field groups of up to 12 campers and supervise and provide activities during after care. Shifts will vary each week with the earliest starting at 7:30am and the latest ending at 5:15pm with all staff working 8 hours per business day when camp is in session.

Dates: June 13 – August 26, 2022
Training takes place June 13-17, roughly 9am-3pm, times may vary.
Camp begins on June 21st and ends on August 27th (no camp on June 20th or July 4th). There are 5 sessions through-out the summer, each session is two weeks long, Monday-Friday.

General Duties: Plan, prepare, and teach age- and theme- appropriate lessons, activities and games. Utilize the Arboretum to create fun and dynamic educational and recreational experiences for campers. Naturalists will be responsible for a group of up to 12 campers and possibly 1 high school assistant.

Essential Tasks:

• Prepare and facilitate thematic, culturally responsive, and age-appropriate experiences using prepared curriculum and other UW Botanic Gardens Youth and Family educational resources
• Collaborate with fellow Summer Camp Naturalists and participate in all daily activities and management of youth campers, including collaboration with and mentoring of a high school youth of all backgrounds and varying abilities
• Collaborate with lead, administrative, and support staff
• Follow all health and safety precautions including masking, social distancing, cleaning, and sanitizing, hand washing, and field group isolation
• Maintain and ensure safety of children and environment at all times
• Communicate effectively with families, campers, and Arboretum staff team
• Foster a fun and educational atmosphere
• Support and guide youth in their interpersonal and social-emotional development

COVID-19 Considerations: This is an in-person, fully outdoors summer day camp. UWBG successfully ran an in-person summer day camp in 2020 and 2021. We are experienced with the WA Department of Health safety guidelines and additional requirements from the University of Washington to run summer camp. While these requirements may be updated again before the summer of 2022, we are confident in our ability to adapt.

Related safety precautions currently in place for summer 2022 include:

• Campers and staff will remain socially distanced as much as possible.
• Campers register for two-week sessions. Staff work with the same group during the session and groups have limited interactions.  
• Modified drop off and pick up to limit in-person interaction with caregivers.

Requirements:
• High school graduation or equivalent AND at least 1 year of experience (personal or professional) teaching diverse youth audiences in an outdoor environment OR equivalent education.

Desired:
• Passion for equity and inclusion in environment and education.
• Willingness to work with students from 1st grade through high school in various capacities.
• Have excellent organizational skills, the ability to work as a team member, and strong interpersonal skills.

Conditions of Employment:
• Ability to stand, stoop, bend, and sit, for 15-20 minutes at a time.
• Be able to lift and carry up to 25 pounds for short distances.
• Be punctual, responsible, and able to work outdoors in all types of weather.
• CPR and First Aid certification or willingness to obtain prior to the start of camp

Department Contact: 
Send questions to: Kim Daniel, Youth & Family Programs Supervisor, 206-616-3381, kwdaniel@uw.edu.

How to apply:

Interested candidates can apply through the job posting on the University of Washington job board.