Campus opportunities
Sustainable Skidmore offers several job opportunities for students, including paid, credit-earning and volunteer positions. Continuing with Sustainable Skidmore's mission, most positions offer experiential learning opportunities so students can gain hands-on skills and apply the knowledge they are learning in the classroom to real-world projects.
Compost manager | North Woods steward | Bikemore manager
Student Garden manager | Sustainability Intern | Sustainable Office Program Manager
Compost Manager
Description: There are two compost manager positions, each requiring three to four hours of work per week, based at Skidmore College. Primary responsibilities of the compost manager will be to work with the Sustainable Skidmore office, the Environmental Action Club and students living in the Northwoods Village Apartments to promote and increase involvement in the Skidmore compost program. The manager will manage the distribution of buckets at the beginning of the academic year; collect and clean compost buckets at the end of the academic year; transport compost from the apartment buildings to the compost bin; turn compost piles; collect, input and analyze data; develop education and outreach programs; coordinate student volunteers; and conduct an annual survey to assess awareness and overall perspective on the composting program.
Duties
- Coordinate closely with the Sustainable Skidmore Office and the Environmental Action Club regarding the composting program to assess the current state of the program and address any challenges, ideas and feedback from the campus community.
- Train and manage volunteers who are interested in supporting the composting program in the apartments.
- Set specific weekly collection and maintenance schedules and advertise to the campus community.
- Maintain compost buckets to ensure that odors are managed as effectively as possible.
- Manage data collection (weight by apartment building, weight/volume of finished compost, temperature readings) and ensure that it is done consistently each week during pickup and is entered into a spreadsheet.
- Turn compost piles each week to ensure the quality of the compost and work with Sustainable Skidmore to make sure there is enough carbon (leaves, manure) near the pile for proper carbon-to-nitrogen ratios.
- Use the bike composting system to handle the transportation of food waste to the bin and provide feedback to Sustainable Skidmore on how it is working and put any equipment such as bikes and bike trailers back into the storage shed when finished.
- Administer a spring-semester survey to all Northwoods residents in conjunction with Sustainable Skidmore to gather data on the changes over time from residents in the apartments in regards to the program.
- Propose programming ideas or workshops and educational materials that can be used to approach Residential Life staff to help engage their residents who may not all be participating.
North Woods Steward
Description: Sustainable Skidmore is looking for creative, organized, self-directed, responsible applicants who have some existing skills related to trail maintenance, outdoor education, communication and related areas. The successful applicant will have good public relations skills and be comfortable interacting with visitors in the North Woods. CPR and first aid certification as well as GIS knowledge and website development are desirable skills.
Duties
- Monitoring physical condition of North Woods.
- Maintain, monitor and record physical appearance/health of the woods, including litter removal and trail maintenance.
- Keep records of visitor use.
Information
- Inform visitors about the details and goals of the stewardship program.
- Maintain kiosks, trail markers and signage so that visitors and campus safety know the woods layout.
- Work with the GIS lab to continue to update and create data points and maps of the North Woods.
- Continue to interview campus and community stakeholders about their relationship to and knowledge of the North Woods.
- Create short videos from the interviews.
- Compile the interview information and other research about the woods into a usable format for future North Woods stewards and others.
- Help maintain Sustainable Skidmore and North Woods websites, manage the North Woods blog.
Reach out to Saratoga community
- Build Friends of the Skidmore North Woods membership.
- Conduct public outreach, such as lectures and guided hikes for community groups and others.
Skidmore Student Garden support
- Help plant, maintain and harvest the Skidmore Community Garden.
- On average, stewards will spend about 12–15 hours per week working on garden tasks.
- Task will include planting, making garden beds, weeding, harvesting, delivering food to the dining hall, campus outreach about the garden and any other duties the garden may require.
Independent research project
- Outline a proposed research project linked to the North Woods and complete the work as well as a summary of your research question, methods and results by August 2.
Documentation
- Write a report summarizing the summer North Woods / sustainability activities, due August 2.
- Include a section on recommendations for future stewardship and sustainability.
BikemorE Manager
Description: The Skidmore Bike Share (ThoroughTreds) student manager position offered by Sustainable Skidmore requires 2–4 hours of work per week, based on campus. Primary responsibilities of the ThoroughTreds manager will be to work with Sustainable Skidmore, the Environmental Action Club, Lucy Scribner Library and students of Skidmore College to ensure the campus bike-share program is functioning properly and efficiently. The manager will regularly check in with library staff and Sustainable Skidmore to analyze the state of the bike-share program, take inventory of the bicycles, evaluate bicycles to ensure they are in proper working order and repair, maintain and keep detailed account of all bicycles in the program. Additionally, because this program is relatively new to the college, the manager will work closely with Sustainable Skidmore and the library to adapt the ThoroughTreds program and checkout process, and market the program to increase campus awareness to ensure the sustainability of the program.
Duties
- Coordinate closely with the Sustainable Skidmore Office, the Environmental Action Club and library staff regarding the bike-share program and to address the current state of the program.
- Receive new program ideas, suggestions and feedback from the campus community.
- Work closely with the library to train staff on bicycle checkout procedure.
- Take regular inventory of bicycles to ensure that all bicycles are accounted for.
- Ensure that all bicycles in circulation are in proper working condition and safe for use. This includes developing a detailed maintenance schedule for each bicycle.
- Receive damage reports from the library and respond in a timely manner.
- Remove damaged bicycles from circulation and repair the bicycles in a timely manner.
- Maintain a detailed record of bicycle maintenance.
- Promote the ThoroughTreds program on campus.
- Keep the maintenance shop and tools clean and organized.
- Keep record of supplies used and prioritize list of supply needs.
Skidmore Community Garden Manager
Description: The primary responsibilities of the Student Garden manager will be to work with Sustainable Skidmore and garden volunteers to maintain the Skidmore Community Garden. The manager is responsible for managing planting, maintenance and harvest of vegetables; finding and retaining volunteers; recording harvest yields; creating invoices and recording financial transactions; maintaining the garden blog and Facebook page; and reaching out to the Saratoga community. The manager will work the 10-week period stated above for regularly scheduled hours.
Duties
- Oversee planting, ongoing maintenance and harvesting of vegetables in the garden/
- Design a plan for plantings in the Skidmore Community Garden and the herb garden based on the needs of the students involved and Dining Services management.
- Carry out the purchasing of seeds and transplants and then planting with the North Woods Stewards.
- Manage the ongoing weeding, watering and maintenance of the garden and herb garden throughout the summer.
- Harvest vegetables and herbs, carefully document the produce weights by vegetable/herb and deliver them to Dining Services management.
General administrative tasks
- Keep track of how many visitors/volunteers you have in the garden.
- Do regular updates to a Google Doc produce spreadsheet that shows the weights and types of produce harvested and share with North Woods stewards and Sustainable Skidmore.
- Create an invoice process with Sustainable Skidmore and Dining Services to keep track of the financial transactions with the dining hall.
- Log hours and tasks in the garden for Sustainable Skidmore.
- Attend regular meetings with the sustainability fellow and North Woods stewards.
Information and documentation
- Write blog posts about what is happening with the garden for Sustainable Skidmore.
- Update the Commmunity Garden Facebook page with information over the summer.
- Help to think about updates and new ideas for the garden website.
- Continue to update the garden brochure in conjunction with Sustainable Skidmore and EAC for the dining hall, Admissions Office, alumni and generally help in spreading the word about the garden.
- Create videos and other educational materials for use in social media to promote the garden
- Document work (successes and challenges) over the course of the summer and then organize it into a summary report during the final week so that it can be used to create a garden annual report after the fall events.
Reach out to the Saratoga and the Skidmore community
- Reach out to local organizations for potential collaborations (Community Gardens of Saratoga, Sustainable Saratoga, the farmers market).
- Plan children’s activities with Camp North Woods counselors and North Woods Stewards one to three times over the course of the summer.
- Think about other possible ways to engage students who are interested in the garden in other educational or interesting opportunities in the community related to local foods and sustainable agriculture.
Sustainability Intern
Details coming soon.
Sustainable Office Program Manager
Details coming soon.
