High school students have spent a week of their summer vacation monitoring beaver habitats, studying burn areas and assessing water health in Southwest Colorado. The Environmental Climate Institute is a five-day camp that helps young adults discover new passions and potential career paths.
About 50 students bunked in the Fort Lewis College residential halls this week and traveled to Silverton, Chimney Rock and the Weasel Institute south of Durango to learn about various environmental pathways. It is the largest group of students the program has hosted since kicking off four years ago.
“The concept of ECI is to help students have an entry point into learning about different types of industry careers,” said Jessica Morrison, executive director of Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative.
The collaborative is a nonprofit organization that began in 2019 under the Colorado RISE Turnaround Education Fund. Morrison said it was awarded $3.6 million to build career and college pathways in a shared capacity across the region. The organization received the largest RISE grant in the state.
“The collaborative started with a group of teachers, school leaders and higher ed partners at the table, realizing that students in the metro areas have more access to resources than students in our rural communities,” she said.
The Environmental Climate Institute is one of two summer camps organized by the SCEC. “Behind the Drywall: Building Trades Summer Institute” was held in Ignacio earlier in June. High school students were connected with industry leaders and learned about HVAC, electrical, plumbing and heavy machinery.
The summer programs are open to students in Archuleta, Bayfield, Durango, Ignacio and Silverton school districts and requires no cost.
The SCEC offers students a $250 stipend for attending a full program. Mark Schenberger, SWCEC career and college coordinator, said organizers did not want students to choose between making money for a week and potentially finding a future career.
“Students from middle-income and higher-income families are usually the individuals that engage in summer programming,” Morrison said. “There are some students that face barriers that others don’t.”
She said providing resources that allow students to discover living wage jobs they are passionate about is SCEC’s “north star.” She said some students have to financially support themselves or their families, which interferes with their ability to explore their passions.
“We decided that we needed to remove that barrier so that any students that want to come to our summer institute would be able to do so; that’s why we stipend for their time,” she said.
Throughout the week, students are shown what a day in the life of different career fields might be. The Environmental Climate Institute is based around the nonprofit’s environmental pathway, which focuses on three components: agriculture and natural resources, water quality and outdoor recreation.
“We took buses up to Silverton at Cement Creek and Cunningham Gulch and focused on water quality and wildlife habitat,” Schenberger said. “It’s really cool because the kids get to work with beavers and map their habitats.”
At the end of the week, students deliver presentations about the projects and activities they complete throughout the summer institute. SCEC hopes to launch additional summer institutes in the coming year, including health sciences, hospitality tourism and education.
glanderyou@durangoherald.com
