
Do you enjoy being outside? Are you looking for a meaningful way to spend the summer and willing to try new things?
Linking Individuals to their Natural Community (LINC) is a summer program for high school students focused on community building, service learning, and exploring local communities and parklands.
This six -week program brings youth from across the Bay Area together for a variety of outdoor experiences themed around service, youth agency, recreation, team building, and professional development. Projects and activities will vary each week and may include:
- Service Projects: Trail work, habitat restoration, community cleanup etc.
- Professional development: resume building, mock interviews, and networking with park partners
- Opportunities to experience and gain soft job skills like facilitation, team building, and healthy communication styles.
- Opportunities to experience and learn technical job skills like wildlife monitoring or carpentry.
- Overnight service camping trip to a National Park.
- Practicing wildlife observation using tools like iNaturalist.
- Participating in team-building exercises like ropes courses, kayaking, or field games.
- Collaborating and networking with other youth programs throughout the summer.
- Learning about your local, state, and national parks.
This program meets Tuesday – Friday for six weeks. At the conclusion of the program, all participants receive up to a $2,300 education award.
We are planning for a fully in-person program this summer 2023. Pending COVID-19 safety restrictions, we will adapt to virtual/hybrid programming as needed.
Program Dates: June 13th – July 28th, 2023 **week break: July 4th- 8th**
Applications for LINC Summer High School Program are due by Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 11:59pm.
For more information please reach out to either:
Adriana Castillo (LINC North) acastillo@parksconservancy.org
or Darryl Burton (LINC South) dburton@parksconservancy.org
Questions and Information
- You want to make connections with other like-minded youth across the Bay Area interested in science and the outdoors
- You are interested in exploring your neighborhood and going on local adventures
- You are open and flexible to a dynamic program with certain uncertainty
- You want to gain a better understanding of climate change impacts to your local community
- You are dependable and accountable when working individually and, in a team
- You are interested in challenging yourself to grow as a leader
- You can commit and attend all program dates
The program typically consists of two cohorts, one in Marin County (LINC: North) and another team based in San Francisco (LINC: South). This year the LINC team will be made up of 24 participants (12 youth in each cohort) who will meet four times a week from Tuesday-Friday. The cohorts will work closely together throughout the summer. Please note that there will be some days when each cohort will meet separately.
What are the dates of the program?
This program meets Tuesdays –Fridays with some occasional Saturdays. This year the program will start on June 13th and end on July 28th.
We meet from 9:30am-3:30pm, except for overnight trips, where timing will change.
Key dates:
- Application due date: Sunday, March 12th
- Family & Student Orientation: Saturday, May 20th
- Program Starts: Tuesday, June 13th
- Program Week Break – Tuesday, July 4th - Friday, July 7th
- Program Ends - Friday, July 28th
Is transportation provided?
Yes, we are able to provide transportation for youth who need it. We will have a designated pick-up location.
The LINC program does not cost anything. Upon successful completion of LINC summer program you will receive an educational award of up to $2,300.
Yes, we are able to provide transportation for youth who need it. We will have a designated pick-up location for each cohort. For LINC North there will be a pickup location in Marin City and San Rafael Bus Transit Center. For LINC South, a pickup location will be determined in the Spring.
We will also provide Clipper Card funds for public transportation for students to get to and from the program during the summer.
Please CLICK HERE TO APPLY. The application includes the following short essay question:
Why does this summer experience interest you?
Your response must be 100 - 250 words.
We also require at least one reference; a reference cannot be a family member or friend. Examples of a reference: coach, teacher, counselor, mentor, etc.
How quickly should I respond to the hiring committee? If we contact you through email, text, or voicemail you are expected to respond as soon as possible. When applying for a job, it’s bad manners for the applicant to take longer than 24 hours to respond. Slow response times will damage your chances of securing a job interview.
Q: How will interviews be conducted? All interviews will be conducted in person, please arrive on time.
Q: What should I do if I’m going to be late for my interview? Please call your interviewer as soon as possible if you know that you will be late. Your interview confirmation email will provide a phone number you can contact in case you need to make any changes.
Q. What will the interview questions be like? We want to make the interview as comfortable as possible for you. We ask questions so that we can get to know you better and understand how you will fit into the LINC team.
Here are a few questions that we may ask during your interview:
1. What part of this program are you the most excited about?
2. What role do you play in a group or team?
3. What is your relationship with nature and the outdoors?
4. What is a change that you’d like to see in your community?
5. What is a project that you’ve been a part of that you are proud of?