June 24, 2002 – Several groups of student and young adults are working at the V.I. National Park on St. John this summer in what Superintendent John King sees as a win-win situation.
While the work the young people are doing helps to improve park facilities, he said, more importantly, the weeks they spend in the park will help to develop their own environmental ethic. And some of them, he said, may go on to conservation careers.
"Over the years, I've met a number of Park Service employees who started their careers this way," King said. He said recruiting young people is part of an overall effort by the National Park Service to expand partnerships with groups and organizations that have a conservation focus. "This will be a wonderful opportunity for them to learn new skills, meet new people, have new experiences, and work and recreate in a marvelous place like the park," he said.
– A Youth Conservation Corps program has a crew of 11 young people from St. Thomas and St. John spending 10 weeks working on a variety of maintenance and visitor service-related projects. King said that in addition to helping the park, the program gives students an opportunity to learn more about the park and their Virgin Islands heritage.
He said he was surprised to learn that several of the St. Thomas students had never been to the park before this summer.
– Two Student Conservation Association trail crews of eight people each are booked to work at the park this summer — one for five weeks and the other for four. The first crew arrived two weeks ago, and the second will come in late July; both groups are staying at Maho Bay Camps. Their assignment is to improve several of the more heavily used and impacted trails in the park.
King said the Student Conservation Association is America's largest and oldest provider of national and community conservation opportunities, outdoor education and career training for youths. Its volunteers and interns annually perform more than one million hours of conservation service in national parks, forests and refuges, he said.
The young people are ages 18 to 23. The association's mission is to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire lifelong stewardship of the environment and communities by engaging young people in hands-on service to the land.
– A dozen AmeriCorps members are spending six weeks carrying out a variety of repair and maintenance activities at park facilities. They also are assisting with a number of resource management and research-related activities. These persons are 19 to 24 years old and are staying at Cinnamon Bay Campground.
AmeriCorps is part of the National Civilian Conservation Corps, a residential, national service program that provides full-time opportunities for young people to serve their country and help communities meet their most compelling needs.

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