The Youth Advisory Council (YAC) is SRT’s newly developed 10-month educational program targeting high school and college students from Porterville Unified School District and Porterville College. Running for the first time in the 2022-23 school year, the YAC internship caters a hands-on, work-based learning experience by providing members with leadership opportunities throughout Tulare County, both in the classroom and at SRT’s various nature preserves. Throughout the training and development of field trips, the YAC students are exposed to various career professionals and stakeholders in environmental and educational fields. Students are trained in outdoor education topics, ultimately acquiring the skills necessary to develop and lead field trips for elementary students from their own communities. Elementary school students from schools across the Porterville Unified School District will come to fieldtrips held at SRT's Blue Oak Ranch Preserve, located in Springville, CA.
The Youth Advisory Council is funded for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years by the California Natural Resources Agency's Youth Community Access Program. Over the course of these two years, SRT expects to provide hundreds of elementary students access to SRT’s Blue Oak Ranch Preserve annually. By emphasizing that this council is youth-led, SRT hopes to encourage students to take their own initiative and feel ownership over their own education, as well as support them in becoming leaders in their community.
