Summer Staff

Summer Staff

Summer volunteers will have a strong emphasis on education, working with many groups of students on service projects, and teaching thousands of people throughout the season. We operate with a four-month summer season and strongly prefer applicants who can stay the entire season. If you are in school, we can try to work around your school schedule. Summer is our busiest time of year, and our summer staff is typically 8-12 strong.

In addition, we try to invite 3-5 strong candidates to join our staff in the spring and spend a few months learning the ropes. When summer arrives, these volunteers will assist the long-term staff in creating a successful summer for our staff and visitors.

Strong preference will be given to applicants who are able to come out as short-term volunteers for a working interview, prior to their intended commitment.

Job Description

All volunteer staff members participate in community chores: cleaning, feeding and watering wolves, and processing meat. All volunteers give hour-long educational tours to visitors of all ages. For most of the summer, we focus our energy on education: teaching our visitors about wolves, ecology, and sustainability.

We divide our work into six areas: animal care, public education, non-profit management, facilities and vehicle maintenance, communications/scheduling, and sustainability. We have Sanctuary Caretakers who oversee operations in these areas, and Assistant staff who support the Sanctuary Caretakers. Summer staff work alongside the Sanctuary Caretakers and Assistant staff, supporting them in various projects. We choose staff based on experience, and try to have a well-rounded skill set among our community. We expect volunteers to work in the area they are most experienced in, but we encourage everybody to branch out and learn about all five areas. Some examples of tasks include:

Animal Care: Communicating with ranchers about meat donations and sick animals, picking up animals to feed to the wolves, monitoring animal health, bringing water to the wolves every morning.

Education: Giving educational tours, working on projects with groups of kids, maintaining our visitor center.

Facilities and Vehicles Maintenance: Keeping vehicle fluids and tires filled, fixing broken things, working on fencing projects

Non-Profit Management: Answering phones, sending mailings, maintaining our database of supporters. 

Communications: Email correspondences, scheduling and monitoring groups/tours, photography, social media. 

Sustainability: Maintaining and turning compost, planting and watering our gardens and greenhouses, harvesting vegetables to feed the staff, weeding our property, planting and watering trees and native plants, processing vegetable oil for our vehicles that burn it.

Working at Mission:Wolf is a full-time commitment. We give many tours, lead work projects for visiting camps every day, and feed the wolves every day. We expect you to balance work with personal time on your own schedule. If you are planning any vacations, you must let us know when you apply.

Summer Requirements

Commitment:

We require a minimum three-month commitment. We strongly prefer applicants who can stay for our entire four-month summer season, May 15 through September 15. We also strongly prefer applicants who can visit the sanctuary as short-term volunteers and do a working interview with us.

Experience/Education:

We are looking for volunteers who have solid skills and life experience. In general, our staff is “good at stuff,” using experience and judgment to do things they aren’t familiar with. Successful volunteers have usually lived on their own, held a job, and participated in group activities. We give priority to applicants who have extensive practical experience in one of our five areas of work. We have no education requirements, though most of our staff have a college education or are in college. We need staff members who can understand the science behind what we do and communicate it clearly to a public audience.

Community Living:

Mission:Wolf operates as a close-knit community, isolated from towns and cities. Our staff need to have great communication skills, experience working with people, and be comfortable living and working with others in close proximity. We set no minimum age, but we do set high expectations for how our volunteers will do their work, interact with the public, and contribute to the community. We judge people based on the work they do and their maturity in human and animal interactions.

Benefits

Housing: Summer staff receive space for a tent in our staff campsite (we provide tents for international volunteers). Staff have access to our community kitchen building and staff bathroom (towels provided), as well as access to our washing machine.

Food: Mission:Wolf provides the food for all summer staff (staples, not junk). You prepare breakfast and lunch on your own, and we all participate in daily community dinners.

Transportation: Transportation to and from local airports, or bus and train stations. Parking space for a car if you choose to drive.

Technology: Wireless internet, access to community laptops, and access to a landline with free long distance and limited international calling.

Bonus Stuff:

• Staff camping trips funded by Mission:Wolf several times each summer

• Access to our collection of outdoor equipment