If bagging groceries at the supermarket or carting around your neighbor’s kids in a minivan doesn’t sound like your idea of a fun summer job, consider this. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful is currently taking applications from local high school students for its Youth Tree Team. The nine-week summer program, taking place every Monday through Thursday, June 7 through August 5, teaches teens the art and science of preserving and maintaining trees through watering, mulching, pruning, and staking. In exchange, participants earn $8 per hour and are provided with free daily lunch. But that’s not all, kids. KIB knows that all work and no play makes for a dull summer vacation. So they’ve built in cool activities — rafting on the White River, training at an adventure course, even a camping trip — to up the ante. Sound like a sweet gig? It is. So, to ensure that they get the best and brightest, KIB has designed a rigorous four-step application process to weed out the best candidates. Here’s how it works.

1. Register at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful by March 5.
2. Stump the competition, so to speak, in a fun obstacle course on Challenge Day, taking place from 10 a.m. to noon on March 6 at KIB Headquarters.
3. Exhibit your tree-planting prowess by volunteering at an event on April 3 from 9 a.m. to noon.
4. If you’re still standing, KIB will invite you in for an interview on Sunday, April 25.

It’s a dirty job, green teens, but someone’s gotta do it. Make the cut, and you’re likely to return to school with improved job and financial management skills, the satisfaction of knowing that you helped make a difference for the planet, and maybe even a tan.

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.