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Strategize & Innovate: Help to Pioneer New Forest Service Partnerships & Pathways for Students, Active Duty Military, and/or Veterans - Multiple Positions & Focused Internships FS-USA-68

Be a part of foundational efforts to collaborate with underserved high schools, universities & colleges, and/or local military bases to support strategic partnerships that demonstrate mutual interest & benefit.

To maintain, sustain, and care for our public lands, our agency engages volunteers, service participants, and partners in accomplishing the essential work of managing and protecting natural resources. Join a team that analyzes, strategizes, and strengthens partnerships to address the pressing needs of natural resource conservation and to expand the work we can accomplish. We connect people to their public lands.

Projects will be catered to VSFS Intern interests, experiences, and goals.

Potential projects, roles, and responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:

Higher Education Partnerships:

- Launch internship programs in collaboration with Offices of Sponsored Programs and Work-Study Programs across multiple states in the Southern Region
- Increase our connections with community colleges to support Ranger District needs and engage under-represented youth
- Develop strategic partnerships with college and university programs, offices, & departments

Department of Defense Partnerships:

- Support the development and implementation of an Armed Forces Conservation Corps program, engaging active duty military in the last 180 days of their service
- Create connections, foster relationships, and support opportunities for volunteer and service engagement on units by nearby bases
- Develop partnerships for active duty military who are injured, wounded, or ill programming through Operation Warfighter

High School Partnerships:

- Work with Title I schools to establish career pathways to Forest Service jobs
- Explore possible partnerships with recipients of Department of Education college access grants
- Collaborate with Conservation Corps Partners and other nonprofits research, write, and submit grant proposals and increase resources for Youth Conservation Corps programming

All positions will support larger goals of creating a Forest Service work force that is more diverse, inclusive, equitable, and representative of the public.

In addition, the team is analytical, strategic, and supports strategic and data-informed decisions. Helping to gather, analyze, and draw conclusions from data is important. All positions will support reporting and data management. Data visualization (developing charts, graphs, infographics, etc.) may also be a component of this internship as well.

These positions will work on a collaborative team. Interns may focus on a particular area, like Higher Education or Department of Defense partnerships or do a mixture of both. However VSFS interns will have individual meetings with mentor(s) as well as meet as a group once a month.

Be a part of creative and innovative problem-solving! Outcomes from these projects could provide new tools and resources that may greatly impact the Southern Region & the agency as a whole.

Interns may stay on for an extended period of time. Those transition will develop a transition document to serve as a succession planning tool for the next VSFS interns.

Mentor has worked with student interns for over 10+ years and is committed to your career path. Effective practices for a successful internship rely on:
- Matching skills, needs, and interest
- Offering a thoughtful orientation to the current situation, needs, and strategy forward
- Building a relationship based on open dialogue
- Prioritizing involvement in important meetings, presentations, and decisions, when possible
- Providing supervision, training opportunities, check-ins, and debriefs

We are committing to you and your career path.

Professional development opportunities will include:
• A virtual panel with USFS employees around diverse career paths within the Forest Service
• Webinars overviewing post-graduate opportunities, pathways to hire into the Forest Service, and ways to increase your competitiveness for Forest Service and federal jobs.
• Opportunities to present to a Regional and National audience on the program and deliverables
• Connections with the Southern Region’s Recruitment Team to support job skills like building a federal resume, navigating USAJobs, and interviewing for federal jobs
• Mentors will provide endorsement of skills & recommendations on LinkedIn following a VSFS’s interns successful completion of the program/academic year

Candidates should demonstrate the following skills & interests:
time and project management skills
strong written and oral communication
proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite & GSuite tools

VSFS interns will be signed up under Individual Volunteer Agreements (OF-301a). All VSFS interns are required to record their hours worked on this project and will be reported in the Volunteer & Service Programs Accomplishments Database (VSReports), the Forest Service’s official national reporting database.