Youth STEM and Horticulture Internship

Commodities

Practices

The project provides a paid summer internship where students explore food system careers while engaging with a full farm-to-plate, closed-loop food system. Interns gain fieldwork experience at three farm sites using low-cost, ecologically sound practices, earn recreational drone pilot licenses, and collaborate with local farmers to create drone-based videos that highlight their regenerative agriculture methods. These videos support the farms' promotion/outreach and serve as free resources for the public. Educators gain practical tools to integrate applied learning alongside farmers and how to use a food systems lens to introduce students to new career paths.

1. Interns participate directly in production and harvesting
   practices that are low-cost and low-maintenance such as cover
   cropping, pollinator habitat creation, hydroponics, soil/water
   testing, etc. at NMEP's farm sites.
2. Interns are exposed to a range of food systems careers and
   community leaders while practicing job-specific skills and seeing a
   closed-loop food system in practice (from farm to plate) under the
   same "roof" at NMEP.
3. Interns will collaborate with farmers by producing video
   overviews (using drone technology) that double as
   promotion/marketing for the farmer and as free resources for the
   public (including educators).