February 20, 2010

Where to find green summer jobs, internships for teens

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Most of the focus at Hire Ground is on getting jobs for adults in the Puget Sound region. But for those job seekers who are parents of teenagers, sometimes just getting the kids out of the house and into gainful employment is almost as important as landing a job for themselves. With competition rising for the best spots this summer, it's best to start looking now.

To help spark the legendarily fickle interest of today's teens, there are many sites that offer a wide range of summer employment and internship options, such as CoolWorks for outdoor seasonal employment or GrooveJob for hourly and part-time work.

One of the newer online resources that is gaining traction among teenage job seekers is Planet Connect, a site that provides daily updates for internships, volunteer opportunities and paying summer positions in the fast-growing green jobs movement. Begun in 2009 through a partnership between the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) and The Weather Channel, Planet Connect was designed by teenagers, for teenagers, who wish to pursue a career in the environmental industry.

Features include social networking capabilities, a blog by Philippe Cousteau, co-founder of the EarthEcho environmental group and free listings for openings at federal agencies, nonprofit groups and nature centers across the country. Recently, the site added a U.S. map highlighting internship and volunteer opportunities, which are updated every day.

"High school students love the site because they can find and interact with other environmentally minded teens all around the country," said Bobby Cato, senior education project manager for NEEF. "This year, we wanted to give them more. There's no better time to start looking for the perfect summer internship."

Planet Connect also includes a grant program that awards $1,000 and summer internships twice a year to high school students who propose the best environmental projects. Last year, two students from Western Washington were recognized for their ideas. Cody Bartholomew, a sophomore from Kent Meridian High School in Kent, won a grant and a summer internship at the Student Conservation Association for his project to install worm bins to help compost food scraps in the school cafeteria. Also, Rachel Nakanishi, a senior at Redmond High School in Sammamish, won a grant in 2009 to include recycling bins for coffee cups in the customer area of the Bear Creek Starbucks, where she worked after school. Later, Nakanishi landed an internship at the Starbucks district office to help spread the program to other locations.

For a list of other online resources where teens can find employment and internships, visit the City of Seattle's teen portal page.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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1 Comments

Meredith Bower on May 3, 2010 1:52 PM | Reply

I am looking for a summer internship or volunteer job/service trip in environmental sciences or environmental law. Can be in USA or out of the country.I am a very dedicated and conscientious who puts a lot of effort into all that I do.

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