Education & Communications Associate Fellowship

Leadership in conservation is a critical piece to solving the ongoing and emerging environmental issues of today. The Aldo Leopold Foundation’s  Future Leaders Program is designed to provide individuals who have recently completed their undergraduate degree the opportunity to gain experience and grow in seven core areas: conservation leadership, finance and fundraising, applied science and natural history, partnership building, strategic planning, communication, and land ethics. Each of these areas is addressed through a professional development series and applied on-the-job experiences that allow for exploration of each topic and time for each fellow to practice and apply these key elements of leadership. Fellows specialize within one of two program areas, Education & Communications or Land Stewardship, but receive exposure to other program areas and organization- wide efforts.

Education & Communications Fellows support an array of on-site programs, outreach initiatives, and communications efforts, creating opportunities for audiences to learn about Aldo Leopold, the foundation, and our work to advance a land ethic and land health locally and globally.

 

The Education & Communications Fellowship is a unique opportunity to build upon your education and communications background through the legacy of Aldo Leopold. Working side-by-side with experienced staff members, fellows will build a wide array of skills needed to contribute to, conduct, and manage education programs at non-profit conservation organizations through firsthand experience in visitor services, program planning, program marketing, and program delivery. Fellows will also gain experience in mission-based communications to a variety of strategic audiences both in-person and across digital platforms. Visitation and programming vary throughout the year, allowing for both periods of high visitor interaction and times of behind-the-scenes work in the office. Fellows will have opportunities to interact with both a diverse range of conservation professionals and the Leopold family, who play active roles in guiding and executing the foundation’s mission.

 

•  Lead interpretive tours of the Leopold Shack and the Leopold Center for conservation professionals, high school and college students, adult groups, and the general public.

•  Help plan, promote, organize, and staff public programs, events, workshops, and/or meeting rentals.

•  Staff the Leopold Center information desk. Tasks include answering phone inquiries about foundation programs and services, orienting visitors to visitation options, selling admission tickets and gift shop merchandise, tracking visitor geography, and promoting annual memberships.

•  Manage volunteers for tours, events, and special programs as needed.

•  Assist with social media content creation and curation, as well as e-newsletter development.

•  Write news articles and blog posts for the foundation’s website, press releases for local media, and grant

proposals to support educational programming and organization-wide efforts.

•  Design program and event flyers, and contribute to larger interpretive graphic design projects as needed.

•  Contribute to fundraising and development efforts such as appeal mailings, donor acknowledgments and appreciation gifts, and welcoming special visitors as they relate to the Future Leaders Program.

•  Attend professional development trainings focusing on the seven core areas of the Future Leaders

Program outlined above. These trainings will constitute approximately 20% of the total fellowship hours.

•  Participate in monthly field days to gain experience in and contribute to land stewardship efforts such as prescribed fire, invasive species management, prairie planting, wildlife surveys, and more.

•  Become familiar with the life and work of Aldo Leopold and his family while exploring your own

connection to and understanding of land ethics.

•  Become familiar with the work of all Aldo Leopold Foundation staff and how each staff role contributes to the mission of the organization.

•  Other tasks as assigned.

The Aldo Leopold Foundation seeks applicants who have recently completed their bachelor’s degree in an environmental studies, marketing and communications, environmental education, or natural-resources related field. Applicants should have excellent communication skills, demonstrated leadership capabilities, and a passion for learning about and executing educational programs for non-profit conservation organizations. Applicants should also be willing and able to lead programs while hiking more than a mile outdoors in all weather conditions amidst a thriving mosquito and tick population. All applicants must be eligible to work in the United States at the time they apply and have a valid driver’s license. Fellows must commit full-time to the entire 12-month program.

  

This is a limited-term, full-time, non-exempt position. The fellowship will begin on Tuesday June 8th, 2021 and run through May 22, 2022. Fellows will move into the Future Leaders Center on Monday June 7th, 2021. Education & Communication Fellows will have a Tuesday-Saturday schedule for most of the year, with a Monday-Friday schedule in January through April. Forty hours a week can be expected, primarily during normal business hours (9:00 am to 5:00 pm daily), although some flexibility in scheduling may be required. will be paid $10/hour and receive 80 hours of vacation, 48 hours of sick leave, and 48 hours of floating holiday. Housing is provided on campus in the Future Leaders Center.

Applications Due: Sunday March 14th, 2021

Phone Interviews: March 18-26th, 2021

Fellowship Start Date: June 8, 2021

Please send the application materials listed below to our Education Coordinator, Lauren Graves

(lauren@aldoleopold.org), and our Evaluation Coordinator, Alanna Koshollek (alanna@aldoleopold.org), by March 14th, 2021. All application materials must be sent as a single file with the subject line “Fellowship2021_YourLastName”. Please note that failure to follow these instructions may result in disqualification.

Describe how you see a land ethic being relevant to issues and opportunities we face in natural and human communities in 2021.

Reference Form located here by March 14th, 2021. Direct link: www.aldoleopold.org/2021-fellowship-reference

For more information and full program details, please visit: https://www.aldoleopold.org/employment/

The Aldo Leopold Foundation recognizes that just as a healthy ecosystem depends on biodiversity, a healthy human society depends on cultural and social diversity. We are committed to expanding the conversation on land ethics by acting to achieve a rich diversity of staff, board, volunteers, members, supporters, and those we seek to engage with our programming. We encourage applicants to address this foundation goal in their application materials.