Internships in Conservation

The Ammonoosuc Conservation Trust (ACT) works to conserve the lands YOU love throughout the North Country. To do this, ACT partners with the local community to educate and connect the public to all things conservation. ACT has been fortunate to partner with Profile High School to provide hands-on experience to high school students interested in the many different roles conservation work has to offer.  

This past semester from January through May, ACT hosted Kyah Knight, a Profile High School senior. Kyah was interested in the internship program to gain career experience and understanding of what she may want to pursue in college. Her interests in psychology and marine biology were sparked when her guidance counselor suggested ACT as an option. She was interested in ACT’s environmental impact and was excited about the prospect of working in social media and outreach to share ACT’s mission.     

ACT is a unique place for an internship because of the diversity in staff roles. We offer internship opportunities in outreach, social media, trail building skills, finance, fundraising, and conservation project work. Alongside ACT’s professional diversity, Profile High School offers a wide range of internship opportunities for its juniors and seniors.

Throughout this partnership, Kyah learned how smaller organizations work in our tight-knit community. She was able to understand what an office environment felt like while honing her organizational and note-taking skills. Being able to practice time-management in a professional setting while planning and thinking about the future are all skills Kyah is looking forward to taking with her to her college experience. Her advice to an underclassman thinking about an internship, “figure out what you would like to do professionally so the internship can help you get experience in that field and go into it with an open mind, without a set idea of what will happen because it will most likely be different than what you were expecting and you might even enjoy it more!”

Working with ACT, Kyah enjoyed the small organization experience and appreciated the easy communication between staff. She liked how independent the internship was, meeting in person once a week and taking her skills and to do list to complete on her own – giving her ownership of each project and task. Through social media she learned about ACT's outreach and public engagement strategies and used her skills to create posts and content. During her internship, Kyah visited ACT properties to get a better understanding of the full scope of work we do in the North Country. She had never been on an ACT property and was excited to visit local areas like Bronson Hill. She was impressed how accessible and well-maintained ACT’s trails were at Bronson Hill, Cooley-Jericho and the new Ammonoosuc Riverlands properties.

Conserving important waterways, farms, forests, and trails wouldn’t be possible without the help of our community. If you’re interested in community development and conservation and would like to consider an internship with ACT, you can email [email protected] or call our office at (603) 823-7777. A huge thanks to Tillitson and their Empower Coös Youth Grant for supporting this initiative.