Volunteer Form download

If you enjoy working with young people and inspiring them to pursue science and nature education and careers, please consider becoming a YSI volunteer. The rewards far exceed anything you might imagine. For over 50 years our family of volunteers has helped YSI grow into one of the best Science Education Institutes in California.

Contact any one of our Science and Nature Centers for additional information to sign up. Thanks!

• Do you enjoy working with or on behalf of young people?

• Do you want to support science and nature education that inspires children to learn more and be excited about science and nature?

• Do you want to be part of educating the next generation of science and technology professionals, teachers, researchers, and critical thinkers?

• Are you a Junior High or High School Student needing to earn community service hours while you learn cool things, explore career paths and enjoy nature, all while you help YSI?

You can volunteer for an hour, a day, a week, or longer. Minimum age for volunteers is 14 unless otherwise noted. Here's a sampling of some of our on-going opportunities.

Volunteer opportunities evolve all the time. If you don't see something here for you, contact us. (volunteer@ysi-ca.org)

Volunteer Form download

Animal Care

Organic Garden

Professional Skills and Trades

Viola Anderson Native Plant Trail

Marketing

Community Outreach

Desktop Publishing

Special Events

Fundraising

Internet Research and other Surfing Activities

Volunteer From Your Easy Chair

Animal Care - Help us feed snakes, exercise turtles, and maintain our animals’ homes.  Volunteers help Staff Curators feed and care for our educational ambassadors used in our programs. We welcome Junior Curators beginning at age 14 (Requires training and a longer-term commitment.)

Instructor’s Aide: Summer Science Camps - Ready for some Summer Fun?
Then come to Camp and work with Pre-K through Junior High students. More than 140 camps are held on a wide variety of subjects. A minimum commitment of three weeks is required, and the weeks do not need to be consecutive. Each Summer Camp Aide works directly with a Summer Camp Instructor to help prepare materials and lead their camp in a safe, fun, educational way.
Click here for details and form.

Organic Garden - Don’t be a couch potato!  Help us grow potatoes (and more!) in our Organic Garden in Sanborn Park, a hands-on learning center for school groups and summer camp kids.  Assist our garden manager with planting, watering, composting, mulching, and weeding. Come play in the dirt! This is a great 1/2-day and full-day team-building opportunity for community groups and corporate supporters.

Professional Skills and Trades - You know what it takes to maintain your own home, right? Imagine what it takes to maintain three of them -- especially when you have 30,000 kids! YSI often needs the skills of individuals with expertise in various fields, from plumbing to carpentry to maintenance, and more.

Watering Native Plant Trail volunteer - Help us keep our plants happy and well hydrated! Volunteer time commitment is 3-4 hours every two weeks during the months of June – August.

Mulch volunteer - Help us spruce up the Viola Native plant trail in preparation for our summer camps! We have piles of mulch that we need to spread out. This volunteer opportunity is great for groups!

Contact: Janet Hoffman
Email: janet@ysi-ca.org
Phone: 408-356-4945 x26

Location Details: YSI Vasona, 333 Blossom Hill Drive, Los Gatos CA 95032

Marketing - Help is need with everything from taking YSI program flyers to your child's school or local market to joining the Marketing Team that implements our marketing plan.

Community Outreach - We have many opportunities to host a table or booth at community events...more than our staff can handle! Your help is needed so YSI can be present at these important events. Training and materials provided.

Desktop Publishing - Have a passion for branding? We do! Want to help us look our best? We do all our design in-house and would welcome your help on one-time publications and on-going collateral material.

Special Events - Like coordinating the big picture or helping with the smaller details? Help is needed leading up to and on the day-of our Insect Fair in May and our Wildlife Festival in October. You can help with a single task, like preparing materials, or with a bigger piece of the puzzle, like coordinating the craft tables. Or you can volunteer for just a couple of hours at the event. Like to throw parties? We also hold special events for our donors each year.

Fundraising - Can't forget this one! Our Science Matters Team would welcome your support as we introduce people to YSI at our "Under the Microscope" events, maintain relationships with donors, and hold our annual Science Matters! fundraising event.

Internet Research and other Surfing Activities - We like to stay up-to-date on trends and findings in science and environmental education. If you like such internet exploration, surf for us! Or, we often don’t have time to take advantage of many of the marketing and other opportunities that are free to us on the 'net. Help YSI leverage the single best tool in modern times since Velcro (or is it duct tape? Post-its?)

Volunteer From Your Easy Chair - Talk about a "kick-back" way to help: things that you can do at home while you watch TV...like cutting out nametags, collating materials, bundling fliers, etc. This is a great way to be "on-call" for us with various important tasks. Many hands make light work. Please lend us yours!