“We are not separate from nature; we are nature expressing itself.” Joanna Macy

Satisfies HS volunteer hours requirement

Earth Sense - Ripple Internship

Attune to Nature. Imagine Together.

APPLY

  • “Earth sense is a way to connect to yourself, others, and nature. I loved it! It was such a wonderful experience!”

    Summer 2026, Kate, 10th grade in High School

  • “Earth Sense is an opportunity to slow down, reconnect with nature, and rediscover the wisdom of living in tandem with the earth through reflection, mindfulness, and ritual."

    Summer 2026, Katie, Junior in College

  • “Earth sense is a program that I have never experienced before, it gave me the perfect combination of caring for the earth, caring for my community, and caring for my wellbeing.”

    Summer 2026, Jade 10th grade in High School

  • "It has been a safe, grounding community where we can pause from the chaos of everyday life and reconnect with our innate connection to the earth, and to ourselves."

    Summer 2026, Katie, Junior in College

  • "Earth sense is an amazing program that helps you reconnect with yourself and with nature."

    Summer 2026, Anonymous, 10th grade in High School

  • "I liked this program because I like writing in my journal and doing a sit-spot in nature. The hands-on activities were fun, and the letting go ceremony around the bonfire really helped me."

    Summer 2026, Evie, Freshman in College

Learn from the Land. Lead in Your Community.

Spend time outside — learn from nature, indigenous wisdom, and each other. Then bring what you discover back to your school and community.

  • Learn how nature regulates your nervous system — calm focus.

  • Learn to listen deeply to Earth. Let indigenous wisdom guide you.

  • Learn grounding practices rooted in nature — not screens.

  • Design and lead your own project for your school or community.

  • Earn volunteer hours while learning and making an impact.

Indicate your interest and availability:

APPLY 
🌍 DEEP LISTENING

Deep Listening starts with slowing down to pay attention to the world around you. The natural world has been communicating all along. Indigenous cultures have known this for thousands of years. We're just remembering how to tune in.

✨ REIMAGINING OUR NEW WORLD

Our usual transactional relationship to nature — and to each other — isn't always working. This is your space to question that, dream differently, and imagine what a relational world could look like. Together we harvest and integrate the messages from nature.

Four Foundational Modules:

Understanding the Mind 

Reclaiming our Earth Bodies 

Heart resonance with Nature

Connecting with peers

Learn Earth-based practices

  • Take part in outdoor nature immersion experiences

  • monthly or quarterly during the school year

  • weekly or more during the summer

  • Local parks, beaches, trailheads in/near Santa Barbara

  • Wilderness trip ~ Vision Quest

Embodied practices will guide you to your innate wisdom and how to share your unique gifts with the world.

Deeper Dive - Create Ripples

  • Create your peer-to-peer Ripple project based on what inspired you

  • Tailor your project to your community of choice

  • Join peers to help with their project

  • Meet with mentors and cohort at least once a month for project support

  • Earned volunteer hours will depend on hours invested in projects

Individual peer-to-peer projects:

  • Once you learn and experience Earth-based practices, you will have an opportunity to learn how to facilitate the ones you liked best.

  • You can choose how much time, creativity and passion you put into it. 

  • You could teach a lesson, facilitate an experience, create regular gatherings, or use any type of media to share your new knowledge.

  • These can be tailored to one or more friends, family, or an entire group you are involved in (class, club, team, extracurricular activity, etc.). 

  • Opportunities to earn volunteer hours (or boost your resume) include (1) learning how to facilitate, (2) being mentored to develop and carry out your project, and (3) facilitating peers and reporting back about it.

Examples of projects:

  • You are part of an environmental stewardship group, and you incorporate nature-based mindfulness to boost the group's emotional resilience to sustain the effort.

  • Your peers are struggling with the pressures of career and life choices, and you facilitate a nature immersion experience for them to ease the process.

  • You start a campaign to gather like-minded peers to practice nature-connection regularly at a convenient location.

  • Your class has a lesson on something related to what you've learned during this Earth Sense Internship (physiology, psychology, ecology, environmental/social justice, indigenous wisdom, etc.), and you offer to share about or lead an Earth-based practice for your class.

Some of the most powerful moments happen in the group. You'll meet peers who think differently, feel deeply, and want to make a difference — just like you.

Led by guides who hold space, encourage participation, and engage intention. Not teaching wisdom at you, creating conditions for you to sense your way back to something already within you.

What You'll Walk Away Knowing

  1. Being present is actually a superpower

  2. Your body holds wisdom your mind hasn't caught up to yet

  3. The Earth is not a resource — it is a relationship

  4. Feeling disconnected isn't your fault, and you're not alone in it

Codes

  1. Protect life 

  2. Cultivate awareness

  3. Act with compassion

  4. Live in reciprocity

  5. Speak truth with courage

  6. Build what heals 

  7. Never turn away from suffering

Phases

  1. Awakening

  2. Inner Transformation

  3. Interconnection

  4. Sacred Leadership

Remembering we belong to Earth.