School and Group Programs
Student Stewardship Projects
Yosemite Institute operates as a non-profit partner of the National Park Service, under a 20-year Cooperative Agreement. Our work directly supports the mission of the NPS which addresses "the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations." As part of our commitment to teaching people about stewardship of the park, we want to provide opportunities for all YI participants to give something back to Yosemite. We call these service learning experiences "stewardship projects". During the 2004-2005 school year, YI students contributed over 7000 person-hours of work to Yosemite and every school that worked on stewardship projects got a thank-you letter from the park Superintendent.
If this kind of service learning experience is important to your school, please indicate this on your pre-trip questionnaire.
Types of Projects
YI students worked on resource restoration and visitor experience projects including:
- Removing acres of invasive plants: blackberry, bull thistle and mullein
- Collecting litter
- Removing an old asphalt trail
- Bear box cleaning
- Shoveling snow off boardwalks
- Harvesting dogbane
- Scrubbing off graffiti
- Trail clearing
- Collecting survey pinflags
- Removing apples
- Harvesting acorns
"Anyone can be great, because anyone can serve."
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
