Acadia National Park Internships: Opportunities for Conservation and Career Development

Acadia National Park, located on the rugged coast of Maine, presents a unique environment for students and young professionals seeking to immerse themselves in conservation, environmental education, resource management, and outdoor recreation. These internships provide practical experience while contributing to the preservation of Acadia's natural and cultural resources.

A Stepping Stone to Conservation Careers

Acadia National Park serves as an ideal place for young individuals to explore potential careers in conservation. The park collaborates with organizations such as Friends of Acadia and Schoodic Institute to offer unique opportunities for outdoor work experiences. The National Park Service also manages youth programs throughout the country.

Internship and Fellowship Programs

Acadia National Park and its partners offer a variety of internships and fellowships, each with a specific focus and set of responsibilities. These programs cater to diverse interests and skill sets, providing valuable experience in various aspects of park management and conservation.

Friends of Acadia Summit Stewards

Each summer and fall, Friends of Acadia Summit Stewards dedicate thousands of hours to Acadia's summits and trails. Their duties include answering visitor questions, performing basic trail maintenance, repairing cairns, removing visitor-built cairns and rock art, responding to emergencies, communicating with park managers, and gathering social science data.

Friends of Acadia Stewardship Assistants

Stewardship Assistants work as part of a small team to maintain the trails and carriage road systems within Acadia National Park. They empower and lead volunteers of all ages and abilities in service projects ranging from half-day to full-week commitments. They also lead regular trail and carriage road maintenance drop-in days three times a week throughout the season.

Acadia Youth Conservation Corps (AYCC)

The Acadia Youth Conservation Corps (AYCC) provides an eight-week, non-residential summer employment opportunity for youth ages 15-18. Participants work, learn, play, and grow alongside their peers while completing necessary conservation projects. They gain valuable insight into their environment, including the importance and nuances of conservation. The program emphasizes challenge, education, and fun, offering opportunities to expand horizons and build skills that benefit participants for a lifetime.

Note: The Acadia Youth Conservation Corps program is cancelled for the 2025 season. Applications for the 2026 season will be accepted starting in November.

Schoodic Institute Early-Career Fellowships

The Schoodic Institute offers early-career fellowships for scientists, educators, and communicators. These fellowships, including the Second Century Stewardship fellows and the Gero Acadia Early-Career Fellowship, provide recent college graduates with the opportunity to develop professional skills in conservation fields, engage learners of all ages in science, and advance science to inform park stewardship. The Gero Acadia Early-Career Fellowship is a competitive 10-month program made possible by the generous support of Cathy and Jim Gero, the National Park Service, Schoodic Institute, and the National Park Foundation. Fellows work alongside National Park Service and Schoodic Institute scientists, educators, communicators, and resource managers in Acadia National Park and surrounding areas.

Acadia Youth Conservation Corp Internship

This 12-14-week paid position supports the Acadia Youth Conservation Corp for high school youth ages 15-18 years old. Interns develop trail maintenance and leadership development skills. They gain a diverse experience, with opportunities to work with almost every program in the park, focusing on the pillars of learn, work, play, and grow. Recruitment begins in November.

National Park Service Vegetation Crew Internship

This position works with the NPS Vegetation crew managing invasive plants in wetland and forest ecosystems. The member participates in native plant restoration and revegetation efforts. The NPS Academy program provides job shadowing, mentoring, and career development opportunities during their time at Acadia. Recruitment begins in November.

Interpretive Media Team Internship

This 12- to 20-week paid internship position is embedded fully within Acadia's busy and creative Interpretive Media Team. This person's dedicated larger focus contributes directly to significant programmatic accessibility improvements in progress across the park, such as writing detailed site descriptions of popular park destinations from the perspective of people with disabilities.

Vegetation Management Internship

The intern will be provided opportunities to explore a range of vegetation management programs and skilldevelopment while contributing to the restoration of the park’s natural resources, including native plant restoration, invasive plant management and forest pest management. This position bridges the vegetation restoration field season with the forest pest monitoring and management field season in late fall.

Schoodic Institute Science Internships

Schoodic Institute’s unique ecological setting enables us to study biodiversity and effects of a changing climate from sea to trees. We take an integrated approach to science that is reflected by our early-career positions. In partnership with the National Park Service, National Park Foundation, and David Evans Shaw Family Foundation, Schoodic Institute provides fellowships to scientists in the early stages of their careers to pursue conservation solutions across parks and protected areas. Through the continued generous support of Catherine and James Gero, the National Park Service, Schoodic Institute, and the National Park Foundation we are able to offer 10-month fellowships in Science Research, Environmental Science Education, and Science Communication. These five-month positions cover a variety of projects focused on intertidal research, habitat restoration, biodiversity monitoring, engaging citizen scientists in research and monitoring, and science communication (and the overlap of them all). Students with funding from their colleges and universities assist Schoodic Institute science staff with multiple projects examining ecosystem change in Acadia National Park, including coastal food webs and science communication.

Scientists in Parks (SIP) Program

Every year, the Scientists in Parks work experience program places hundreds of aspiring professionals across the National Park System to work on natural resource management needs. Additional opportunities are available with the National Park Service for biological science technicians, information specialists, environmental educators, and more. Early-career positions are typically posted in mid to late winter.

Focus Areas of Internships

Acadia National Park internships offer opportunities in various areas, including:

Read also: Acadia's Influence on Bowdoin

Resource Management

Interns involved in resource management assist in the conservation and preservation of Acadia’s natural resources. This may involve tasks such as invasive species removal, habitat restoration, and wildlife monitoring.

Administration and Planning

These internships provide exposure to the administrative side of managing a national park. Interns may assist with tasks such as data collection, report writing, and project coordination.

Scientific Research

Acadia National Park often collaborates with researchers and scientists on various projects. Interns may assist with data collection, analysis, and interpretation.

Duration and Benefits

Internship durations can vary from a few weeks to several months, providing participants with substantial exposure to the park’s operations and creating an understanding of its ecological significance. Interns at Acadia National Park not only accord to vital conservation efforts but also benefit from experienced professionals.

How to Apply for Federal Positions

As a unit of the United States government, all job announcements for federal jobs are posted on USAJobs. Always check USAJobs to be sure. In partnership with Mount Desert Island Adult Education, Ellsworth Adult and Community Education and College of the Atlantic, Acadia National Park will host several federal resume workshops. Applying for a federal job is different than applying to jobs in nearly every other industry.

Schedule A Hiring Authority

One in four adults in the United States lives with some form of disability. People with disabilities cross all racial, gender, educational, socio-economic, and organizational lines. Unlike many other underrepresented groups that face barriers to employment, anyone can become part of the disabled community at any time. Schedule A refers to a special hiring authority that gives federal agencies an optional, and potentially quicker, way to hire individuals with disabilities. You can apply for jobs using Schedule A if you are a person with an intellectual disability, a severe physical disability or a psychiatric disability. To be eligible for Schedule A, you must provide a proof of a disability letter from your doctor, a licensed medical professional, a licensed vocational rehabilitation specialist or any federal, state or local agency that issues or provides disability benefits.

Find Your Passion

If you are between 15 to 30 years old, or a military veteran who is 35 years old or younger, apply for a job or paid internship to help you figure out your career path. Gain work experience, while helping to preserve and protect our nation’s natural and cultural resources. The National Park Service collaborates with many organizations to offer onsite and remote internship and fellowship opportunities. Whether you are looking for part-time work during the school year, a summer job, or are beginning a full-time career, check USAJobs for current openings.

College of the Atlantic and Acadia National Park: A History of Collaboration

College of the Atlantic (COA) and Acadia National Park have a four-decade history of collaboration that supports students to work and learn in Acadia. 1 or 2 COA students participate in a program with Acadia lasting between 20 and 30 weeks in a given year. The specific arrangement and allocation of a student’s time in a given year will depend on student interest and Park needs. Students would be selected for the program in winter. In the ideal arrangement, during COA’s spring term, they would work with COA and Acadia to create a one-credit independent study to read, meet with park personnel, and otherwise prepare for their summer internship. In summer, the student would be placed for a minimum of 40 hours a week for 11 weeks in an internship at Acadia National Park. The students would maintain their status as an Acadia Scholar for their remaining time at COA, and we would choose additional scholars each year.

Since COA’s inception, COA students have found ways to volunteer, work, and study in Acadia. and the park service enter their second century, the role of parks and the role COA plays with Acadia is evolving. We have formalized our many informal connections with Acadia and have started an Acadia Scholars internship program that gives COA students invaluable experience and credentials while simultaneously helping to meet some of Acadia’s needs.

Experience has shown that you cannot manage a national park through the lens of a single discipline. Parks are not just about biology, landscape design, psychology, or law, they require the understanding and application of multiple disciplines. Thus, they require human ecology.

Former Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell often said about outdoor education, “We all know that the best classrooms have no walls.” This is true both physically and metaphorically; for years COA has demonstrated this with its use of Acadia in our teaching. Many of our classes use Acadia as a class laboratory. COA students learn from working in Acadia and Acadia benefits from the great work the students do. Our relationship with the park reflects the breadth of human ecology and the human experience.

Examples of COA Student Work in Acadia

Emma Majonen, 2016.
Noah Rosenberg, 2017. Created multimedia content in the form of videos, blogs, short form articles, and photo essays for Schoodic Institute’s field-based environmental research projects and educational programs with the Park Service.
Gemma Venuti, 2017.
Sidney Anderson, 2018.
Teaghan Rose, 2018. Fulfilled the daily duties of an Interpretation Ranger, designing and giving ranger led programs, interacting with park visitors to the park, and providing interpretive information.
Molly Donlan, 2019. Researched behavior and ecology of bats impacted by White Nose Syndrome in Acadia.
Molly Donlan ’20: Biological Science Technician, Acadia National Park.
Adrianna French McLane ’02: National Park Service Interior Regions 6, 7, and 8, Chief of Interpretation and Education.
Alexa Pezzano ’00: Acadia National Park Director of the Schoodic Education Adventure Program.
Bik Wheeler ’09: Wildlife Biologist, Acadia National Park.
Christie Denzel Anastasia ’92: Public Affairs Specialist, Acadia National Park.
Johnathan Gormley ’78: Acadia National Park Blackwood Campground, Acadia National Park Interpretation, Acadia National Park Volunteer Coordinator.

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