On November 13th, 11 students from Mount Mansfield Union High School (MMU) and Lamoille Union High School (LUHS) began as interns in the fully accredited Youth in Agriculture and Natural Resources Program. The program is a comprehensive and intensive hands-on learning environment that is structured as a job with a very different set of rules, standards, and expectations from a traditional high school and from which students will earn a small daily participation stipend during the school year, and minimum wage in the summer. The program features projects ranging from helping design a crop rotation plan for the Intervale Healthy City Garden in Burlington, to helping a UVM researcher with a bobcat study, to learning more about the Abenaki culture and its agricultural and naturalist roots. The LUHS program is based at the school in Morrisville, while the MMU program is based out of the Youth Leadership, Education and Training Center at the West Monitor Barn.

This project is a statewide collaboration between UVM Extension, Smokey House Project, and the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. Our project partners include the State of Vermont, Mount Mansfield High School, Lamoille Union High School, and AmeriCorps VISTA.

If you would like to learn more about this program, or stop by the Barn to see our students in action, please contact Thomas Hark at 434-3969 ext. 100 or thomas@vycc.org.