Earn $1,000 and an internship: develop an idea to conserve and protect wildlife!

Whether you live in a city, a rural area or a suburb, wildlife is all around you. In many of these places, wildlife is being threatened. Are you a high school student with a creative idea for conserving and protecting wildlife and its habitat in your community? Planet Connect is offering Youth Engagement Grants of $1,000 for high school students to implement their problem-solving projects and participate in a local internship that will be focused on wildlife conservation.

Wildlife and their habitats are not just located in the woods or forested areas — they are in the trees in your backyard, the shrubs around your school building and everywhere else. Ask yourself, what local wildlife habitats or natural resources are being threatened and by what? What problem is this creating in your community? What can you do to help?

Once you have focused in on a specific issue occurring in your community, think about specific goals for your project and the steps you will need to take in order to address the problem. Do you see any opportunities to protect or preserve wildlife habitat? Think about what kind of project could be developed to address the issue. Can you think of something that could get your whole community involved? What will the positive impacts be for the community?

In the application, you will be asked to create a timeline for implementing your project, as well as a detailed budget describing how you will tackle the problem, what tools you will use, who you will work with and what positive outcomes you foresee. If chosen as a winner, you will be provided $500 to turn your project into a reality. After completing your project in June, you will participate in an 80-hour wildlife conservation or natural resource internship in your local community during the summer of 2012. At the end of the internship you will be awarded a $500 stipend.

To apply for a Youth Engagement Grant, please visit https://www.grantinterface.com/Common/LogOn.aspx?eqs=OEpobC3UY-IJBz6shkZvJg2 and create an account. Applications are due February 1, 2012.

Eligible participants will:

Be 14-19 years old 

Be enrolled in a U.S. high school program (public, private, charter or home school)

Propose a project that is focused on wildlife conservation

Be a member of Planet Connect (please visit http://planetconnect.org/user/register/ to become a free member)

Be available during the summer of 2012 for participation in a wildlife conservation or natural resources internship

Have not received a Planet Connect Student Grant in the last two years.

For a list of ideas, please visit: http://planetconnect.org/2012wcgrants.