Actively Recruiting: Yes
Position title: YES Member at Acadia National Park
Deadline to apply: 2026-11-15
Type of Position: Intern / Individual Placement
Town, City, Park, etc: Bar Harbor
State / Territory: Maine
Benefits: Education Award
Project/Program Focus: Education/Interpretation

Apply Here

The Stewards Individual Placement Program places individual placements across the nation in projects that build capacity, improve access to natural resources, develop and support innovative solutions, develop opportunities for service and economic development, and empower leaders.

Stewards Individual Placements & Youth Empowerment Steward (YES) Initiative:
Stewards Individual Placements provides individuals with AmeriCorps service and career opportunities to strengthen communities and preserve our natural and cultural resources.  The Youth Empowerment Steward (YES) initiative aims to increase access to the outdoors for all Americans.

Are you passionate about expanding access to public lands and creating welcoming outdoor experiences for all visitors? Do you believe everyone should have the opportunity to explore and enjoy our National Parks? Our health, our planet, and our collective future rely on variety – in thought, ability, experience, and ideas.  Join the Youth Empowerment Stewards (YES) program and contribute to strengthening park operations and enhancing the visitor experience by helping to remove barriers to outdoor access—ensuring that our national parks remain open, attainable, and welcoming to all Americans.

Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park protects the natural beauty of the highest rocky headlands along the Atlantic coastline of the United States, an abundance of habitats, and a rich cultural heritage. At 4 million visits a year, it's one of the top 10 most-visited national parks in the United States. Visitors enjoy 27 miles of historic motor roads, 158 miles of hiking trails, and 45 miles of carriage roads.

Acadia National Park's Education District works with an average of 42,000 students and teachers each year, highlighting the NPS Mission, providing programs and field trips to learn more about cultural and natural resources, and teaching recreation-based skills to students grades Pre-K through 12.

Role of YES Member at Acadia National Park
Stewards Individual Placements, in collaboration with Acadia National Park, are seeking a Youth Empowerment Steward (YES)  AmeriCorps Member with Acadia National Park.  This Environmental Educator YES service member will assist with leading both virtual and outdoor education winter programs and will help adapt those programs to better serve students with hearing and visual impairment needs.

The YES Member will collaborate with Acadia National Park’s Education team to learn the park’s winter programming operation and help adapt virtual program formats to improve access for students who are members of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Community and/or experience some degree of visual impairment. This YES Member will adapt our key virtual program outlines to include vocabulary lists for ASL Interpreters, adapt program scripts to accommodate the timing of two presenters (one ranger and one ASL Interpreter). This position will develop a "How To" guide for teachers and Rangers to use when setting up a virtual programs that includes ASL translation. Additionally, this position will investigate and help adapt Acadia’s virtual programming to better serve students with visual needs, as well as English as a second language classrooms.

To achieve the goals of this YES position, the Member will:

• Review program outlines and shadow a variety of park field trips, virtual programs, and school outreach programs
  • Attend park-led trainings with the K-12 Education Team
  • Learn studio set-up, program software, and practice four (4) key programs
    • Co-facilitate in-person and virtual educational programming
    • Lead facilitation of various in-person and virtual educational programming
  • Research best practices and available ASL services for virtual platforms
  • Research best practices and service providers for creating Closed Captioning
    • Learn about, implement, and utilize descriptive text for in-person and virtual needs
    • Adapt existing programming outlines to include ASL Interpreters, enhanced visual descriptions
      • Pilot proposed changes and enhancements with Acadia’s Education Team
    • Compile a list of local ASL services
      • Create a guideline for Acadia’s Education Team on how to contact local ASL service providers, request services, and payment for providers
      • Will collaborate and learn from Acadia staff to outline billing and payment options