You do not need to know everything about the natural world or be hard-core into all things environment to participate and excel in this co-op! Do you... 

• Enjoy working in a team environment

• Enjoy being outdoors and don't want to sit at a desk all semester

• Care about the environment and want to take action in protecting it 

• Enjoy working with younger students or are thinking about working in the education field

• Want to gain hands-on experience 

• Want to improve your leadership, communication, and teamwork skills 

• Have a positive attitude and are willing to learn and try new things

If you said yes to any of the statements above, then this could be the placement for you! Nature's NEAR is a great first step into learning more about the natural world, strengthening your leadership, teamwork & public speaking skills, and allows you to explore different career pathways before you leave high school. This placement is also great for students looking to fulfill their co-op requirement for related Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) Programs such as Environment, Agriculture, Education, Business, and Art sector SHSMs.  

The co-op students main task in this placement is to help develop and lead environmental activities to elementary students, however, there are opportunities to explore and complete additional tasks related to your specific interests. There are opportunities to assist with designing/creating promotional and educational resources, website maintenance, social media strategy, video creation, and so much more!

Nature's NEAR is focused on centering student voice which means you will get a lot of say in the topics we explore and teach about! Nature's NEAR has supported high school students with a wide-variety of career interests and have seen students carry-on to pursue post-secondary programs in engineering, animal care, illustration, business, forestry, education, environmental management, conservation, and more!

Yes! Co-op students will receive training and certifications that will help expand their knowledge of the natural world and help prepare them for leading outdoor activities and educating younger students about the environment and ecological sustainability. There may also be unique opportunities to learn from different members of our community and work in partnership with local organizations to better our understanding, connections and programming. 

Students are required to transport themselves to our home base located at New Street Education Centre (also known as Gary Allan Learning Centres). From there, Nature's NEAR provides a taxi to transport the team to different schoolyards across Halton. If you do have a car, you have the option to meet us at the different schoolyard locations. If transportation is a barrier, you can contact supervisor, Grishnavie Sivasundaram as there may be a solution we can work out. 

Placement occurs Monday to Friday. Placement timing is subject to a bit of change since we travel to different elementary schools which have differing school schedules but generally placement hours are as follows: 

Morning Placement: 8 am - 11:30 am 

Afternoon Placement: 12:30 pm - 4 pm 

Typically, Nature's NEAR will accept around 5 co-op students each semester but this may increase as the program continues to grow. 

Sorry we couldn't answer your question here. Please don't hesitate to reach out! Nature's NEAR understands that finding a placement that fits can be stressful and overwhelming at times and that you may have additional questions. You can contact supervisor, Grishnavie Sivasundaram, here with any additional questions or inquiries you have about the placement. Remember, there is no such thing as a bad question!