The Nature Conservancy’s LEAF program immerses students in conservation work

LEAF interns try their hand at seine fishing, a method of fishing using a net (a seine) that hangs vertically in the water.

Four Central Falls High School students, poised to enter their senior years this fall, will spend four weeks this summer working outdoors to maintain nature preserves, remove invasive plant species, and monitor plant and animal species.

The four, yet-to-be-selected students will be paid interns in The Nature Conservancy’s Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future (LEAF) program. This is the first summer that Rhode Island students will take part in the 18-year-old national program, although The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island has hosted LEAF students at its Block Island office for the past four summers.

“Most of the students in LEAF don’t have much experience outside their environment at home in the city. They see things they’ve never seen before,” explains Terry Sullivan, the Conservancy’s Rhode Island state director, noting that last year’s Rhode Island-assigned team was from Atlanta, GA, and its members “had never been on a ferry, never cast a fishing line, and one had never seen the ocean.”

Time for fun and recreation, including learning to kayak, is part of the LEAF internship experience.

The LEAF program, designed “to empower the next generation of conservation leaders,” provides summer internships to high-achieving urban youth who attend environmental high schools (schools in which students are engaged in environmental lessons and activities throughout the school year) and who are enthusiastic about conservation work. Each team of three or four students and an adult mentor are assigned to a Nature Conservancy preserve in one of 22 states across the country. (When applying to the highly-competitive program that requires interviews and recommendations, the Central Falls students knew only that they would be working out of state.) The students and their mentor work alongside Conservancy staff, researchers, and land stewards on site management projects.

The internships combine classroom learning with hands-on conservation work and are “an immersion experience,” Terry says, noting the students cannot have cell phones or computers, and are not allowed to play video games. Interns live in Conservancy-provided housing and, with a budget provided to them, are responsible for running the household for the four-week period. They also have time for fun and recreation, as well as visits to area colleges. Previous Rhode Island-based interns toured Brown University, Johnson & Wales University, Providence College, and several Boston schools.

A LEAF intern uses a spotting scope, a small portable telescope used for bird watching and other naturalist activities.

“The LEAF program has a tremendous impact on these youth – opening their eyes to career possibilities, building self-confidence, work skills, and conservation literacy. It also raises their awareness to issues of race and ethnicity and the power that conservation and restoration has in bringing people together,” Terry states.

A national evaluation of the program supports these observations, with findings that include:

• 93% of student participants have an increased interest in environmental issues;
• 91% have an increased awareness of conservation career paths;
• 79% identify as environmentalists; and
• 33% currently are employed or have held a position with an environmental organization.

Although this is the first year for Rhode Island students to participate in LEAF, The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island has long involved urban youth, specifically those from Central Falls, in its programs. Middle school students participate in field trips to the Conservancy’s Francis C. Carter Memorial Preserve in Charlestown and the Tillinghast Pond Management Area in West Greenwich. “We get the kids excited about the natural world through experiential learning,” Terry says.

Removing beach fencing was one job of these LEAF interns who worked alongside Conservancy staff, researchers, and land stewards.

As they get older, there are more opportunities: Conservancy internships through Central Falls STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Academy; five-week employment opportunities through the Youth Conservation Corps; summer internships and short-term employment for college students; and ongoing mentoring for college graduates who participated in Conservancy youth programs.

“Conservation in the future must have a more diverse group committed to the work. The LEAF program has a very specific purpose of broadening the base of people who can be great conservationists and who can focus on the challenges we face in the 21st century,” Terry concludes.

The Toyota Foundation is the largest supporter of the national LEAF program. The Rhode Island Foundation is helping fund The Nature Conservancy Rhode Island and the Gregson Foundation, a donor advised fund at The Rhode Island Foundation, is generously supporting the Central Falls students’ LEAF internships.

The Nature Conservancy has been doing work in Rhode Island since 1968 and opened its Rhode Island Chapter in 1989. It owns and manages 8,000 acres of conserved land and has had a hand in protecting 35,000 acres in Rhode Island.

Learn more about The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island.