SAMO Youth starts work!

Santa Monica Mountains Fund today welcomed the 22 outstanding young people who will be working with the National Park Service for the next eight weeks on a range of duties in the mountains. They will make up the 16th successive cohort of the SAMO Youth program to work with the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

These young people are some of the brightest and best juniors and seniors from underserved communities in Los Angeles and Oxnard. They are on the way to college either this or next year. To gain a place on this program they went through a competitive selection process as over 100 high school students applied.

They will be paid to work on useful projects with National Park Service (NPS) rangers including trail clearance, leading public programs and habitat restoration.

“This will be a challenging program but we believe that it will help set up these young people for success in the next phase of their education. We are excited to partner with NPS on this program.” said Charlotte Parry, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Mountains Fund.