Summer Outdoor Instructor

As a Slide Ranch Summer Camp Instructor, you will work alongside a dynamic staff on a rural, coastal farm within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. From June-August, Slide Ranch hosts 10 weeks of day camp. Summer camp participants learn to care for farm animals and an organic garden, explore wildland trails, discover ocean tide pools, cook farm-to-table, and participate in nature-based arts & crafts projects, and connect with outdoor spaces and sustainable food systems. Camp Instructors lead groups of students in experiential education camp programming.

Apply yourself for a season of work that challenges you to grow as a person and as a professional educator. You will gain valuable hands-on experience in agricultural and environmental education and learn how to live and work in a rural setting as a member of a community.

Summer Camp Instructors receive one-week of training focused on organic gardening, animal husbandry, wildlands stewardship, residential community norms and best practices in outdoor education.

Summer camp programs serve 5-13 year old campers. The work week typically involves 5 camp days, with a Monday-Friday camp week. Camp week themes can include “Ocean Exploration,” “Birds,” “Seeds,” “Pollinators” and “Food and Cooking.”

A typical work day is 8 hours and includes morning farm chores and preparation for camp, leading a camp day from 9:30am-2:30pm, followed by clean-up, and prep for the following day. Some additional afternoon sessions include team meetings, educator skill building and planning, garden and animal husbandry, and farm and environmental maintenance and stewardship. Instructor observation, coaching and mentoring by program staff complement the position.

Farm and Community Life

All instructors are responsible for a daily ~30 minute ranch chore. Additionally, all residential staff shares residential community responsibilities outside of the work day, including a weekly residential chore, cooking dinner for fellow residents with a partner twice each month, and monthly resident meetings.

Desired Qualifications

Position requires a collaborative and positive spirit to work with a team of teaching peers, organization staff, and residents. The successful candidate will possess a great attitude and strong motivation to experience all facets of the job as important to one’s learning and development. A successful candidate will also possess a growth mindset, with a desire to set goals, reflect, and provide feedback to the rest of the team. Applicants must be comfortable living in rustic accommodations.

• Prior experience working for camps or working with children.
• Flexibility, enthusiasm, creativity, curiosity, and positive attitude.
• Eagerness to engage campers of various ages with an interactive, student-centered teaching approach.
• Desire to learn about and practice farming and land stewardship.
• Awareness of multicultural environmental education and issues related to the urban environment and current local, regional and global events.
• Dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion in teaching and learning.
• High level of personal responsibility in work and professionalism when dealing with the public and colleagues, including plants and animals.
• Ability to take initiative and adopt a solution-oriented approach, while understanding the value of teamwork.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to accept supervision and guidance.
• Interest in supporting nonprofit organizations, including participating in fundraising activities, volunteer programs and donor events.

Physical Requirements

Duties are performed in a hilly and rural outdoor setting and can be physically demanding, including outdoor teaching in all weather, manual labor such as shoveling, and lifting up to 40 lbs.

All incoming instructors are expected to have current CPR/1st Aid certification by June 3, 2024.