In 2023, Ty Anderson, 15, spent the summer pulling a lot of buckthorn and burdock—invasive plants—and restoring native grasses to Wisconsin in their internship with Cream City Conservation Corps.

“Every time I thought of having a job, it was always an indoor thing, it was an office job,” Ty says. “But, I’m really glad that I took the time and opportunity to find this because I’m learning a lot about the outdoors and the environment.”

The work has meant clearing trails and learning about native and invasive species. Each day offered variety. Their first week, Ty helped plant native plants to help restore a landscape at Havenwoods, the only state forest in Milwaukee County, after a prescribed burn.

“I’m just outdoors a lot more. It makes me really happy to be outside so much.”

In 2023 Asha Yusuf worked with Teens Grow Greens as a part of a nine-month horticulture apprenticeship.

“You focus more on teaching the interns,” she says. “We work at our garden center at Weber’s Greenhouse. That’s where we sell plants to all the community members and stuff. It’s working at places like that. We teach the interns about—we make lessons up for them in our own time and we teach them games centered around gardening.”

She learned how to work as a cashier, how to take care of plants, and customer service skills.

At the Green & Healthy Schools Conference she networked with students from other schools and also with exhibitors.

“I met the Wisconsin Green Muslims. It's an organization for learning about your faith and how to take care of the world and environment... I met her because we were were both Muslims so I went up to her because I was interested.”

Asha plans to continue in the program at least till her junior year.

2023 is Karina Hurtado’s first summer interning with the nonprofit Teens Grow Greens.

“I learned to cook a lot of different meals with Teens Grow Greens,” she says. “We’ve also been weeding a lot of vegetables and fruits we have there, which I've never done before. I mean, My dad has a garden but I really don't help out as much. It was really nice.”

Her experience interning with Teens Grow Greens has influenced her career aspirations.

“At first I was thinking of doing education for elementary and now I’m leaning toward baking and having my own business.”

Karina, 17, plans to graduate this upcoming year, so this will be her last year with the program.

In 2023 Leo Welzig, 16, found the summer internship with River Revitalization Foundation a strong foundation for pursuing future opportunities in Milwaukee’s environmental community.

“There's just so much land stewardship that we do. Taking care of all of the land that RRF is in charge of because it's a land trust.”

Leo has learned about native and invasive species.

“We’ve done training on the different types of bumble bees in Wisconsin. I’ve learned so much about different invasive species and how to identify them and stuff. It’s just been a really cool experience.”

In addition to the physical labor involved in land stewardship, the internship has involved numerous field trips to broaden interns’ experiences of how humans interact with nature in Milwaukee. Adjunct activities have included paddling the Milwaukee River in canoes and kayaks, visiting the Kinnickinnic River at Pulaski Park, touring Jones Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, attending a Wisconsin Department Natural Resources conference, and taking a financial literacy course.

In 2023 Owen Bellin, 17, was in his second summer interning for Urban Ecology Center at Riverside Park. He also worked there during the school year.

“This summer I’ve been doing a lot of neighborhood engagement. We basically just help around the building and just do whatever needs to be done around the building.”

Part of his responsibilities include taking care of the animal room where the center hosts native species from Wisconsin.

“I've been taking care of them, feeding them, weighing them, testing the water quality for them, stuff like that,” he says. “It's mostly turtles at Riverside Park and I really like them, but there's also two snakes.”

Owen is particularly fond of one snake named Neil.

“He’s a black ratsnake. He's about 5'3" in length. He’s a very big snake. I just love hanging with him. I will hold him and pet him and feed him and stuff and it’s really fun.”

In 2023 Quentin Banigan, 16, is in his second summer working as a Fresh Coast Guardian through Cream City Conservation Corps.

He and his crew have worked in parks trimming trails, replacing a dilapidated boardwalk, and testing water quality.

"I have a trouble motivating myself to get outdoors sometimes," Quentin says, "but doing meaningful work outside actually helps a lot."

His internship has also influenced his sense of career paths after high school. He remains interested in pursuing an opportunity in physics but how physics applies has evolved.

"Originally it was astronomy. Now, I'm hoping to go more into something related to green infrastructure through physics."

In 2023 Russell Morgan, Jr., 18, completed a summer internship with Menomonee Valley Partners.

The graduate of Milwaukee’s Rufus King High School plans to attend Marquette University and study computer science, following in his father’s footsteps.

The seven-week summer internship exposed Russell to the operations of different corporations with some connection to the Menomonee Valley.

“Every week we would go to a different company and just learn about what they do,” he says. “It's mostly architectural and engineering firms. I’ve been to Harwood, to EMCS, the Sigma Group, Harley-Davidson—their powertrain operation out in Menomonee Falls—and all these other companies.”

The internship also exposed him to peers and professionals with a variety of interests and backgrounds—graphic design, architecture, civil engineering, biomedical engineering. “We met an accountant who has a degree in psychology.”

He notes its focus on industry, MVP remains concerned about the environment.

“One of the first things we learned was about the history, about how with all these factories they just used to dump all their trash and just put dirt all over it,” he says. “So, if you dig down not even 10 feet you’re going to come up on all this trash. So Menomonee Valley Partners has definitely made it a priority to try and clean it up.”

Jazziah Watson, 14, an intern with Teens Grow Greens, wants to follow her grandmother’s footsteps as an activist.

“My grandmother is like a teacher, I guess, but like, she had a minor in African American studies. She was some kind of activist. She used to advocate for people a lot, and that led me to law.

As part of her internship with Teens Grow Greens, Yasmeen Davis visited a farm in East Troy. It was the first time she’d ever been to a farm.

“Basically they have a few barn cats, they have a bunch of animals, they had a bunch of gardening spaces. We was able to feed little cows and basically feed a bunch of animals.”

The field trip made her want a backyard garden, but is saddened this may not be possible in her neighborhood.

In 2023 Xavier Burrell, 17, did a summer internship with Menomonee Valley Partners.

This involved visiting a different professional firm each week. He recalls a variety including Zimmerman Architectural Studios, Harwood Engineering Consultants, EMCS, and Benesch Engineering—all with Menomonee Valley headquarters.

The internship exposed Xavier to a variety of different people and types of business.

Looking ahead, Xavier aims to attend college and prepare for a career in game design, perhaps with Nintendo in Japan.

“I want to be an IT person so I want to focus more on the mechanical-ish side,” he says. “Others want to fall on the architect type of side. It’s very interesting. It’s a fun group.”

Nine months out of the year, Alano Verala works as a teacher at ALBA school, but over the summer they found a rewarding role as crew leader with August Ball’s Cream City Conservation Corps (C4).

This summer Alano led C4 interns on a trip to Chequamegon Forest near Eagle River, Wis. where the crew trimmed trails, installed firepits, and consulted with U.S. Forestry Service personnel to get a sense for non-college-degree career paths.

“I really love working with young people,” Alano says. “It’s so amazing to get to know them as a person and their interests but also to be that person to empower them to pursue them.”

They’ve also deepened relationships beyond a shared interest in conservation work.

“I identify as trans/nonbinary and we have other folks as well who are on that spectrum and just getting to know their path and their journey and being able to push them to explore themselves further.”

Miracle Mark is an international student from Nigeria spending his first summer in Milwaukee in 2023. He’s studying with the UW-Milwaukee Department of Geography, volunteering with local environmental groups during the summer, and also working the welcome desk at the UWM Golda Meir Library.

While volunteering with the group Nearby Nature, he used his first weed whacker and has also learned more about conservation efforts.

Miracle also volunteers with Riverside Urban Ecology Center, Sierra Club, and Coalition on Lead Emergency.

He notes a cultural difference between Nigeria and the United States.

“The culture is really different. Here it’s more individualistic. While, back in Nigeria it’s a little more communal, more family oriented. Here, it’s more me, myself, and I—get as much money as possible to better myself. While at home, it’s like, my family, my neighborhood, my community, and trying to have a good reputation. You don’t want to do anything that would soil your family name.”

Though his first winter was tough, he notes with a laugh, he got through it, and has found Milwaukeeans generally warm, welcoming, and willing to help.

“The environment is all we have,” Miracle says. “We get our resources from that. We get our life from there. It should be something we take more seriously.”