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DENNISON TWP. — A love of the outdoors can become a career, Cindy Adams Dunn, Secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, told ECO campers at the Nescopeck State Park Monday.
ECO Camp is a free, week-long residency program giving high school students an opportunity to learn about nature, summer employment and associated career paths.
Twenty teens, ages 14 to 18, from across the commonwealth are attending this year’s ECO Camp. The youth are using the Kirby House in Glen Summit Springs, Mountain Top, as their base camp.
They will have opportunities to talk with conservation professionals, camp two nights at a local state park, kayak, fish and investigate a waterway.
“We received over 80 applications (for this year),” Diane Madl, environmental education specialist at Nescopeck State Park, said. “We already have a waiting list for next year.”
Dunn is just one of the professionals with whom the group will meet and network to streamline their career goals.
Outdoor-based summer employment opportunities with Pennsylvania’s 120 state parks are abundant for students, she said. This year, state parks employed 550 youths and 180 lifeguards and offered 65 paid internships, Dunn said.
“There wasn’t anything like this when I was younger. I knew I was interested in nature,” Dunn said. “It wasn’t clear to me at that point that it could be a career. I really thought the only way to see the world was to be a truck driver.”
Dunn, who loves kayaking, fishing and bird watching, said she was a camp counselor in her youth. She found connecting people to nature to be a rewarding experience.
Employment with a state park is in the public service sector, offering a variety of positions, including forester, educator and maintenance personal.
Kingston resident D’Mitri Yakushin, 18, is working as a clerk this summer at Hickory Run State Park.
Yakushin, a student at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke, is building customer service and problem resolution skills to prepare himself for a career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
On his second day of ECO Camp, Zack Fisher, 17, of Mountain Top, said he wants to become a forestry firefighter and is enjoying meeting other teens from across the state.
“You are all fortunate to be here,” Dunn told the students. “You will learn how to turn your passion for the outdoors into a career.”
