Summer Youth Stewards Program

A summer, hands-on learning opportunity for high school students and recent graduates between the ages of 14-18. You will learn all about Bay Area plants and animals, gain experience in habitat restoration and plant propagation, build leadership skills, and work outside!

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To Apply

Check back in Spring 2025 for our next application window.  

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2024 Capstone Project

In July, Sutro Stewards wrapped up its 5-week conservation internship in partnership with Enterprise for Youth. During the program, 10 youth interns worked on multiple projects: creating a new trail spur from the Nursery to Clarendon Trail, removing over 3000 sq ft of invasive species from stewardship sites, propagating dozens of plants, collecting native plant seeds, and harvesting both invasive and native medicinal plants alike for salve-making, ink-making, and sage bundles. They also spent a day at Angel Island engaging in some important San Francisco natural and human history, familiarizing themselves with a local island landscape, and even came in on a Saturday to help restore our Woodland Canyon Creek site.

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For their capstone project, interns chose a site on the mountain to present what they learned during the program. Youth then led each other and Sutro Stewards staff to their chosen trail, tree, or stewardship site to identify plants, demonstrate tool use, discuss Mt Sutro history, and share a relationship they developed with a plant – whether it was the wild petunia, the plum trees, or the towering eucalyptus. Their total route spanned three miles, taking us all over the mountain; from the Clarendon Trailhead, past the Rose Corner on the Historic Trail, over to Woodland Canyon Creek, and finally finishing at the Summit. It was powerful to see how the youth engaged each other in the magic of the mountain from their own eyes. ​​​​