ShoreRivers is hiring two high school interns from Dorchester County Public Schools to work with us in summer 2025. Current high school students (ages 16–18) attending one of Dorchester County Public Schools are eligible to apply.
Internship timeframe: The internship will be four weeks within July and August. Start and end dates are flexible and will be determined when student interns are selected. Our goal is to allow students time for summer vacation, family, sports, and other commitments, while remaining engaged with this internship.
Hours: During the four-week internship, students will work three days a week, approximately six–eight hours a day. After the summer internship, students will have the opportunity to be paid for an additional 20 hours during the rest of the summer or school year to plan and complete a “capstone” project in their community, ex. litter clean up, tree planting, mural, etc.
Pay: $15/hour, approximately $1,125 for the summer and $300 for capstone project.
Location: Interns will work at ShoreRivers’ office in Easton, throughout Dorchester County, and on the Choptank River.
This is a brand-new internship, created to support high school students in discovering their interests and passions while also gaining work experience in environmental careers. If you are interested in this opportunity, even if you have never done anything like this before or are unsure about the experience, we encourage you to apply! If you have questions or want to talk things through before applying, you can email Paige Dempsey, ShoreRivers’ internship coordinator, at pdempsey@shorerivers.org. You can also talk to your career coach at school: Ms. Shaw at Cambridge-South Dorchester High School or Ms. Roberts at North Dorchester High School.
Summer Internship Activities and Responsibilities
The high school interns will be supervised by a staff mentor from ShoreRivers’ Education Team and will interact with our entire staff and college summer interns. Summer interns will receive training in all internship activities and will be supervised by a staff member at all times.
ShoreRivers’ high school summer interns will:
Collect water quality samples by boat with our Choptank Riverkeeper
Collect and process water bacteria samples for our Swimmable ShoreRivers program
Visit tree and garden planting sites in our communities to water plants and monitor project success
Support environmental education programs, including our partnership with a summer camp that will include fishing and canoeing with fifth-graders
Create community outreach materials, such flyers for events, social media posts, or e-newsletter articles
Plan and implement their own capstone project with the help of ShoreRivers staff. Examples of capstone projects include, but are not limited to, community green space beautification such as murals or native plantings, organizing community cleanups, or creating an issue awareness or behavior change campaign.
Other possible activities include helping our volunteer oyster growers, helping collect underwater grass seeds, removing invasive species, litter clean ups, cleaning supplies, and more
ShoreRivers’ high school summer interns will be expected to:
Communicate openly with staff mentor throughout the internship (about schedule, with any questions, etc.)
Commit to learning and asking questions about environmental topics and issues, learning new skills, and trying new activities
Be enthusiastic about meeting new people in our communities
Work outside and in nature for part or all of the day, occasionally on boats and by the water
Stay engaged and participate for the entire duration of the internship
Application process
We highly recommend you let your career counselor know you are applying for the internship — they can help you. To apply for this internship:
Complete the application via Google Form to provide us with basic information like your school and contact information for you and your guardian.
Use this template to answer two short essay questions below. Each answer should be 250-500 words.
Tell us about a community you are a part of. Describe why you are passionate about your community, and/or you can tell us about issues or challenges in your community that you care about. Your “community” could be the place you live, your school, your local environment, a team, a group of people, or things or places you feel connected to.
Why do you think this internship will be a meaningful experience for you?
Email your responses to Doug Mayorga at dmayorga@shorerivers.org with the email subject title: 2025 DCPS Summer Internship Application.
Applications are due by 11:59pm on March 31, 2025. Interviews will take place in April. Intern will be selected and notified in May.
about shorerivers
ShoreRivers is an organization that protects local waterways, including the Choptank River, to ensure our rivers are swimmable and fishable, and that our communities have access to them. We have four staff members — called Riverkeepers — who monitor the health of our river ecosystems by collecting water quality data by land and boat. We use this data to find sources of pollution and our Restoration Department then works to reduce the pollution running off the land into our rivers. Our Community Outreach Department engages our local communities in volunteer efforts like planting trees and rain gardens, restoring underwater grasses and oysters, and trash cleanups. Our Education Department partners with schools and youth organizations to get kids outside, on our rivers, and helping in our mission.