Summer Backpacking Instructor
Christodora, a 125-year-old nonprofit, nonsectarian organization, based in NYC, seeks Backpacking Instructors to work at its Manice Education Center (MEC) located in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts on a 200-acre wooded campus. MEC operates a series of summer courses for NYC youth ages 11-18, focusing on environmental education and leadership training in both a camp setting and backpacking and canoeing trips.
The B.R.I.D.G.E. program (Bringing Reward and Investment for Developing and Growing Educators) serves as a final step in being a participant of MEC summer programs, and helps prepare students apply themselves in the outdoor education industry. The program focuses on leadership and educator development while backpacking for 8 days on the Long Trail in Vermont.
Join Our Team: July 25 – August 12 (three weeks)
Responsibilities:
- Review, modify as necessary, and deliver program curriculum in satellite team of instructors
- Safely lead a group of up to eight high school youth on an eight-day backpacking trip.
- Ensure adherence to permitting requirements in the Green Mountain National Forest of Vermont
- Actively mitigate risks associated with overnight backpacking excursions in backcountry and operate within MEC policies and approved risk management plans.
- Overnight supervision of program participants.
- Represent MEC as a positive role model while mentoring, supporting, and empowering program participants to develop and grow as leaders in outdoor education.
Qualifications:
- Adventurous spirit, willingness to learn, passion for the outdoors, and enjoy connecting with youth from NYC.
- Experience in outdoor education, wilderness navigation, leadership training.
- Experience leading extended backcountry backpacking trips
- BA/BS in related discipline preferred. Significant professional experience considered.
- Current Wilderness First Responder or higher certification. Current CPR certification.
- Spanish/English Bilingual a plus.
- Valid driver’s license and safe driving record.
- Background clearances and medical physical required. Initial drug screening may be required.
Compensation:
- $700/week
- training opportunities
- outdoor gear discounts
- accommodations/meals during training and programming
Acknowledgement
The staff of the Manice Education Center acknowledges that, as outdoor professionals, we continue to live and make a living on the unceded and ancestral lands of the indigenous people who stewarded these lands for generations before the arrival of European settler colonialism. These people and sovereign nations include the Mohican, Pocumtuc, Nipmuc, and Wabanaki, though much of this history remains lost or stolen through the effects of European settler colonialism. These nations are not currently represented in the board, directors, or employees of Christodora, Inc., which owns and operates MEC, and MEC continues to benefit from the oppressive history of colonialism and industrial agriculture that has forever altered the ecosystems of the region. We recognize there will be implications for how Christodora must alter its thoughts and decisions when educating youth on unceded lands, and we welcome dialogue in this work, as this is only a small step toward repairing the generations of injustice done to these people and nations.
To Apply…
Please email employment@christodora.org with only “[Last Name]/Backpacking Instructor” as the subject of the message with a resume and brief cover letter in the body of the email. Three professional references may be requested following an initial phone interview.
Christodora is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, family status, income, ethnicity or race, religious or spiritual practice, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, indigenous heritage, and/or any other characteristic protected by law.