The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

2010 LEAF intern in Virgnia © The Nature Conservancy

Since 1995, the LEAF program has had a tremendous impact on urban youth—opening their eyes to career possibilities, building self-confidence, work skills and conservation literacy. Now, 16 years later—and in the context of a national trend of declining nature participation—The Nature Conservancy decided to carry out an independent outside evaluation to determine the long-term impact of the program, which has served approximately 300 students from 1995-2009.

See the full survey ►

Overall, the evaluation set out to answer the question: “What are the long-term impacts of The Nature Conservancy’s LEAF Program on an urban youth population?” The survey measured environmental values, activism, academic outcome, career track and support for conservation. Highlights confirm that LEAF alumni are active conservationists in their personal and professional lives.

LEAF Alumni at a Glance

• 96% went straight to college after high school
• 95% recreate in city parks
• 93% increased interest in environmental issues
• 91% increased awareness of conservation career paths
• 79% identify as environmentalists
• 70% change the environmental behavior of others
• 49% reported LEAF influenced their academic study
• 39% applied to one of the colleges visited in LEAF

Preparing Tomorrow’s Conservationists

The Conservancy’s LEAF program offers youth both career development and a direct hands-on environmental stewardship experience. Working with mentors, LEAF interns are well-supported and guided to gain work and life skills within a context of connecting with nature. These types of mentored experiences in nature are the key component to producing life-long conservation supporters.

Global conservation consistent with the Conservancy’s mission requires a diverse constituency of support. The LEAF program is designed to develop just such a constituency. Urbanization is a growing national and international trend. More than half the world’s population already resides in cities. In the United States, that number is now more than 80 percent. By targeting urban youth from populations largely underrepresented in the conservation movement, the LEAF program is training and developing the next generation of conservation leaders.

During the program, students are placed in small teams and paired with a mentor that lives and works with them on a daily basis. Their four-week summer fieldwork session consists of a variety of tasks categorized as land management, educational outreach to local communities and scientific research. Several college visits take place during the program to facilitate an introduction to college life, and weekend outdoor recreation such as swimming and kayaking add to the students’ experience in nature.

For many of the students, the summer experience is their first time living on their own, managing a budget, cooking meals, doing laundry and developing self-reliance. It is also often their first job working in a diverse team and participating in challenging physical hands-on fieldwork. The LEAF program is physically, socially and intellectually demanding. Yet, it is through these challenges that the students develop improved work, social, academic and life skills.

After the summer experiences, alumni serve as advocates for their peers. The Conservancy provides formal and informal opportunities for interns to share their experiences with peers and the public. They also serve as ambassadors to recruit the next year’s candidates for the program.

Goals

For the purposes of the survey, the LEAF program goals were translated into a set of short and long-term program objectives:

• acquisition of nature stewardship skills;
• acquisition of life, school and workplace skills;
• improved academic outcomes and career track;
• long-term commitment to conservation support;
• life-long environmental values; and environmental activism.

The report indicates that the program successfully achieves its stated goals, particularly in the area of conservation support, environmental values and community level environmental activism.

Demographics

Based on alumni respondent demographics, the program successfully targets (85 percent non-white) ethnic and racial groups that are underrepresented in the conservation community. For almost all of the youth participants (93 percent), the LEAF program represented the first sustained exposure to nature.

Nature Stewardship and Life Skills

Sustained exposure to nature, particularly with a mentor, is one of the fundamental experiences thought to lead to long-term conservation support and environmental activism – a key program goal. In addition, allowing the students to perceive themselves as having a positive impact on the environment encouraged them to develop confidence in pursuing environmental and personal goals beyond the summer program. Ninety-two percent of alumni expressed a sense of empowerment from the LEAF experience. Urban students felt relaxed and at peace immersed in nature and expressed greater interest in environmental issues and a greater awareness of conservation career paths from the LEAF experience.

Academics and Career Track

Ninety-six percent of alumni went directly to college and attained higher education levels compared to their peers nationally. When comparing completed educational levels of alumni with national averages , alumni compare favorably: 21 percent of alumni completed bachelor’s degrees as compared to 9 percent nationally.

Compared to the achievement gap between the non-white and national population, LEAF alumni excel: 21 percent of alumni completed their bachelor’s compared to 6 percent nationally. When compared to the population at large, many more LEAF alumni were employed and more had experience with employment in environmental organizations. Alumni in a variety of professions incorporate environmental practices in their work, and a high percentage are in education-related careers, increasing the ethnic and racial diversity of environmental role models. Employed LEAF alumni also earn markedly higher incomes compared to national non-white averages.

Conservation Support and Environmental Values

Results indicate the LEAF program successfully meets objectives of cultivating long-term and high-level support for environmental and conservation values. LEAF alumni are aware of and rank almost all environmental factors as extremely serious among a list of various current issues. Compared to the national average, alumni place greater value on environmental issues, such as global warming and loss of natural areas.

Environmental Behavior, Advocacy and Activism

LEAF alumni exhibit more environmental behaviors than the general public and spend a substantial amount of time outdoors: 2-4 hours per day. LEAF alumni are environmental advocates; they take a stand for environmental issues with their peers and in their communities, and 72 percent define themselves as environmentalists. More than half have volunteered for an environmental organization over the past year – more than twice as many as the national average .