Opportunities in Kachemak Bay, Alaska

Alaska Coastal Summer Institute (summer 2019)

ACSI is built around four core experiences (each about a week in duration) hosted by local research agencies and community-organizations in the Kachemak Bay area.  These core experiences provide a fun, fascinating, and highly effective way to learn how scientific knowledge is being built and used in Kachemak Bay. Students will also attain job-related skills in research design, data collection, analysis, and scientific communication. Plus, students can grow their professional network and become familiar with a number of the research agencies working in Kachemak Bay, exploring different career options and build connections with organizations that offer seasonal internships, as well as research/graduate school positions! Each core experience determined by the partner agencies offers students insight into their most interesting and important research, community-based monitoring, and science communication work.  The cost is approximately $3000, but some scholarship assistance may be available. For more information, go to https://www.akcoastalstudies.org/education-programs/alaska-coastal-summer-institute.html

Field Studies for Student Groups at Peterson Bay (spring, summer, fall)

CACS crafts unique Alaska Coastal Ecology educational programs for middle school, high school, and college student groups from around the state, country, and even world.  If you are interested in bringing a group of students to our remote Peterson Bay Field Station in spring, summer, or fall, please get in touch.  Using evidence-based teaching methods and immersing students in the amazingly diverse and complex human-ecological systems of the Kachemak Bay region, these field study trips can be just a couple days long as part of a longer trip throughout Alaska, or you can focus your time in Kachemak Bay, spending over a week at the Field Station.  Check out https://www.akcoastalstudies.org/education-programs/summer-youth-programs/for-groups.html or this brochure for more information.

Environmental Education Jobs and Internships (spring & summer 2019) with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies

Do you enjoy getting people excited about our natural world?  As an Environmental Educator, Naturalist, or Intern with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, you’ll have the opportunity to share your energy and enthusiasm by leading educational programs for children, school groups, and visitors to Alaska.  As a non-profit environmental education and stewardship organization, the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies’ mission is to foster responsible interaction with our natural surroundings and to generate knowledge of the unique ecosystems of Kachemak Bay. Our seasonal staff are employed at the Wynn Nature Center (a 140-acre boreal forest preserve) the semi-remote Peterson Bay Field Station (coastal ecosystems) and the Yurt on the Spit.  Responsibilities vary by position. Check out our website for more information: https://www.akcoastalstudies.org/about-us/jobs-volunteers.html

Semester by the Bay (fall 2019, and new this year, spring 2020)

Each fall, the Kachemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College, University of Alaska Anchorage, located in Homer, Alaska, offers students from around the country the opportunity for an academic hands-on learning experience studying biological sciences with easy access to cold-water marine habitats and an Alaskan theme. The semester has been designed to meet the needs of students majoring in the natural sciences in a creative and adventurous way.

Kachemak Bay is one of the richest marine estuaries in the world. Charismatic species such as sea otters, killer and humpback whales, bald eagles, puffins, jellies, halibut, and salmon utilize the waters and coastal environments of Kachemak Bay. Students are immersed with these and other species, such as beluga whales, during hands-on labs, field trips conducted throughout the semester here in Kachemak Bay and the surrounding waters of Cook Inlet, and during undergraduate internship opportunities conducted with our community partners. Check out http://semesterbythebay.org/

Teen Eco-Adventure Camp (Late July 2019)

For ages 12-15, this 10 day outdoor adventure and environmental stewardship camp explores the changing environment and how this connects to a most basic and delicious part of our lives – food!  Activities include backcountry & yurt camping, hiking along forests, beaches, alpine, and at the foot of a glacier, berry picking and preserving, learning about salmon fishing, tidepooling, understanding ethnobotany and local edible plant uses, and having fun in the kitchen making a range of homemade foods. Throughout all this, participants learn about how different changes to the forest, beach, and marine ecosystems affect the food we eat and how our food choices affect the environment and communities around us. Contact [email protected] or 907-235-1974 for more details.