Green Team

Growing future water stewards. Our high school summer Green Team crew learns about native Michigan habitats and watershed ecology as they work on bio-swales, rain gardens, and large-scale restoration projects throughout the watershed.

Developing youth leadership for green stormwater infrastructure

The Green Team Initiative educates high school students about watershed ecology, environmental justice issues, and the role of nature-based solutions in stormwater management while training them to develop job skills for installing and maintaining green infrastructure.

As part of their training, participants learn to propagate and care for native plants at Calvin’s greenhouse. The students use these plants to construct and maintain rainscapes at job sites in residential and business settings in their watershed. In this way, students are directly improving the communities in which they live through on-the-job training, while at the same time benefiting the health of local waterways. One added benefit for the Green Team students is the opportunity to work alongside college research assistants who help to demystify the college experience for the high school students. This initiative is helping to prepare the next generation of environmental leaders.

We believe that providing this opportunity for young people to learn how care for the watersheds they live in is an investment in the future of our urban waterways as well as in the students themselves.

Applications are open

This is a 3-week, paid summer position open to high school students. Participants will work an average of 26 hours a week. Participants will learn and work outdoors in all kinds of weather. Work will involve physical labor and getting dirty. For more info, contact us at PlasterCreekStewards@calvin.edu