Live, Learn, and Teach in a Community Dedicated to Experiential Environmental Education
Environmental Educators &
Naturalist Training
Live, learn & teach
in a community of over thirty skilled environmental educators and naturalists. Join the broader community of over 700 alumni scattered across the globe serving as college professors, natural resource professionals, directors of nature centers and camps, school teachers, scientists, state and national park naturalists, writers, adventurers, and artists. Our Naturalist Training Programs offer hands-on, student-centered experiences that prepare environmental education leaders.
Enhance your teaching and natural history skills during our highly regarded nine-month naturalist training program. Earn graduate credits and an EE Certificate.
As a Wolf Ridge Student Naturalist your week might start like this:
Monday
- 8:00 AM Attend a tracking seminar led by Assistant Director Peter Smerud
- 10:00 AM Monday Morning Meeting - learn about the schools and groups you will be teaching this week
- 1:15 - 4:15 PM Teach a class about Beaver Ecology. Your students find some martin tracks. You use your newly acquired knowledge to teach about tracking animals in the weasel family.
- 8:00 PM Go for a night cross country ski with a couple of your roommates. Watch for the northern lights, no luck tonight.
Tuesday
- 8:30-11:30 AM Teach Rock Climbing in one of the two indoor walls.
- 1:15 - 4:15 PM Take a class on the Superior Snowshoe. Stand on a giant chunk of anorthasite and marvel at the immensity of Lake Superior. Hike across frozen Wolf Lake, wave to another class that is cutting out a huge chuck of ice with an antique saw.
Each week you could be teaching six classes, working on coursework for UMD classes, serving as a liaison for a visiting group and all the while trying to find time to play and stay current with your email. Though the schedule can be demanding, if you enjoy a little chaos and love the outdoors, Wolf Ridge might be worth looking into.
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“I will leave Wolf Ridge with the realization that one is never finished learning and developing and with a new eagerness to learn, to develop myself, and to explore.
--Nienke Beintema,
Former Graduate Student Naturalist
Explore your beautiful home on the North Shore
"As I transition away from the naturalist program and into new adventures, I carry with me true passion for my work and students, the importance of being a steward in all that I do, and a reminder to always be an intentional and motivated educator. More than anything my year at Wolf Ridge has renewed in me the spirit of being a life long learner in all realms of my life.”
- Kelly Amoth, 2007 graduate
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