BridgeUP Environment
What is BridgeUP Environment?
BridgeUP Environment began through a collaboration with SCA, the Student Conservation Association. Through our partnership with SCA, high school students are able to spend their summer vacations working, learning, and having fun across a variety of conservation projects in their native New York. The program exists at the intersection of self-discovery and environmental conservation and is designed to provide BridgeUP+OUT students with paid meaningful summer experiences that open up a world of possibilities, not just about what their future careers might look like, but also encouraging them to spend time in nature to reap the mental health benefits, give back to their community, and learn that they are capable of having immediate, important, and long-lasting impacts on their environment.
THE PROBLEM & PARADIGM
Why conservation?
As issues of climate change and environmental degradation become increasingly urgent, it is crucial that citizens of all backgrounds are exposed to nature during childhood, become involved in developing solutions, and receive access to economic opportunities that open up as a result.
Studies have shown over and over again that environmental education for students leads to a number of positive impacts, from improving academic performance, to enhancing critical thinking skills, to developing personal growth and life-building skills including confidence, autonomy, and leadership. In addition, a number of the studies show that environmental education increases civic engagement and positive environmental behaviors.
Despite this, recent surveys have shown that New Yorkers spend the least amount of time outside of any state — averaging just 39 minutes per day.
THE APPROACH
The Great Outdoors
Leveraging a strategic partnership with BridgeUP+OUT in the Bronx, cohorts of ten students and two leaders each work on distinct projects that improve public parks throughout New York City. This program provides gainful summer employment opportunities to BridgeUP Scholars who want to earn extra income while learning about environmental advocacy as well as exploring future career paths.
BridgeUP Environment success so far
Since we began our partnership, BridgeUP Environment has provided a platform for young people across the Bronx to get outside, learn valuable skills, participate in leadership training, and build incredibly relationships with their peers. In post-programming surveys, students report growth across multiple soft skill areas, like self-confidence and work ethics, and hard skill areas, like understanding of how to implement conservation techniques and how to apply environmental conservation to everyday life.
The program helps students understand their potential to change their parks, their future, their world, and themselves.
