Short-Term Job Adventures California

AAVE: All About Visiting Earth Summer Adventure Travel Leaders
Southern & Northern California
The privilege of working in the adventure travel field is huge. Live the dream by becoming an AAVE trip leader. You'll teach teenagers about adventure camping techniques and life skills while facilitating group dynamics in Alaska, California, Colorado or Hawaii in the U.S., with opportunities to also lead adventures worldwide.

American Conservation Experience Conservation Volunteers
Santa Cruz Home Base (from Catalina Island to Lake Tahoe and beyond)
Experience a different way of life. Meet people from around the world. Enjoy spectacular landscapes. Contribute your energy to meaningful and challenging outdoor projects. Take pride in your team's accomplishments. This is American Conservation Experience. Hiring volunteers each month in the western U.S. over a minimum 12-week period.

Camp Augusta Summer Counselors, Heroes, Village Leaders, Administration Staff, Equestrian Crew, Kitchen Team
Nevada City (Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California)
People can have a job, career, or a calling. Camp Augusta is looking for folks who have a calling. Work, play, learn, struggle and grow in a vibrant community this summer. Reap the rewards of a healthy and feel-good lifestyle. Enhance your professional and personal growth. Help foster self-confidence, independence, life-long recreational skills, safe risk taking, an appreciation for community, caring, honesty, respect, responsibility, environmental awareness and fun!

Camphill Communities Therapeutic Community Life Sharing Work Opportunities
Soquel (Five acres overlooking Monterey Bay)
Camphill staff, called coworkers, live and work with children, youth, and adults with developmental and other disabilities in rural Camphill communities in California, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania as well as in British Columbia and Ontario, Canada. Work life may mean providing human support and caregiving, teaching a craft, working in the farm or garden, cooking wholesome meals, engaging in the healing arts, or celebrating seasonal festivals together. Full room and board, medical insurance, vacation time and a modest stipend is provided.

A Day in the Life: Camphill Communities California
Learn more about a Camphill coworker who found his place to help, change, and influence the lives of others while being submerged in a culture of genuine acceptance, love, caring, thought, idea and action. Read more »

Emandal—A Farm on a River Garden, Environmental Education, Food & Hospitality Staff
Willits (Northern California)
Come explore the cycle of employment opportunities with Emandal: a unique place that not only provides a learning environment, but a chance to do something constructive while pondering life's options. This year's employment opportunities include naturalists & environmental educators; head gardener, intern and assistant; facilities assistant/animal caretaker; cooking enthusiast; clothesline concierge; and seasonal support staff.

Esalen Institute Holistic Residential Work-Study Program
Big Sur
Esalen. The word itself summons up tantalizing visions of adventure, of unexplored frontiers, of human possibilities yet to be realized. The 28-day Work-Study Program offers the essential ingredients for making a directed commitment to self-exploration and growth while contributing your service and working talents to the Esalen community.

Hidden Villa Summer Camp Staff; Farming, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Environmental Education Internships
Los Altos Hills (near Santa Cruz)
Live, work and play on a 1,600 wilderness preserve and organic farm in the Santa Cruz mountains! Yearlong interns and summer staff members at Hidden Villa will participate in innovative, hands-on programs promoting environmental awareness, multicultural understanding and humanitarian values where positive change in the world can be made.

A Day in the Life: An Incredible Internship Experience
Is it true that we can live out our dreams by creating our own realities? Find out how Cori's internship experience at Hidden Villa unlocked her door of opportunity. Read more »

High Trails Outdoor Science School Outdoor Instructors
Big Bear Mountains (Southern California)
Do good and fight the man. If you have a college degree, a healthy amount of experience both with kids and the outdoors and the willingness to work and live in a small, close-knit staff community, High Trails is looking for you.

IVGID • Diamond Peak Ski Resort Seasonal & Year-Round Hospitality Jobs
Incline Village (north shore of Lake Tahoe)
Great snow, water fun, great views, mountain living, and great work/play options: get a jump on your career with a seasonal job at Incline Village GID or Diamond Peak Ski Resort. Winter seasonal job opportunities are available in food & beverage, dispatch & ski patrol, customer service, lift & mountain operations, maintenance, transportation, and ski & snowboard instruction. The summer months bring job opportunities that include day camp leaders, lifeguards, food & beverage staff, grounds keepers, carts crew, Marshals and more.

Northwest Youth Corps Outdoor Crew Leaders & Leadership Development Program
Northern California
Imagine working and camping in remote areas throughout the Pacific Northwest and getting paid for it! The Northwest Youth Corps is currently hiring field staff to lead teenage conservation crews on projects stressing environmental education and the development of basic job skills with various start dates from March through October. Seasonal job opportunities are available in northern California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Nyingma Centers Buddhist Residential Work-Study Program
Berkeley or Sonoma County (100 miles north of San Francisco)
Live and work in a Tibetan Buddhist community while learning about Buddhism and making a difference in your life and for the people of Tibet. Benefits include accommodations, vegetarian meals, a full range of Buddhist study classes and a living allowance. Wide range of positions available (including cooking, sewing, maintenance, landscaping, IT, fundraising and all aspects of the publishing business), some offering future job training, from three weeks to six months or more.

Ratna Ling Retreat Center Residential Work Study Program
Cazadero (Coastal Northern California)
Interested in developing your unique potential? The Work Study program at Ratna Ling invites participants to learn and grow while living in a spiritual community of volunteers from around the world. Gain experience in a variety of work related to the management and maintenance of a retreat center. Program includes room and board, evening classes on a range of Buddhist subjects, and a stipend of $150 per month. Current openings include: Social Media Advertiser, Maintenance, Cook, Housekeeper and Gardener/Landscaper.

Stanford Sierra Conference Center Guest Services & Hospitality Staff
Lake Tahoe
If an exciting hospitality job and beautiful mountain setting is beckoning you either this spring or fall, the Stanford Sierra Conference Center is a place where you'll have the opportunity to work and play hard, make new friends and help guests enjoy their stay. The staff comes from all walks of life—college students, professionals between jobs, experienced workers in the service industry, travelers or people taking time off.

TrekAmerica North America Travel Guides and Tour Leaders
North America (training in Southern California)
Doubling as travel guide and driver, tour leaders for TrekAmerica take small groups on exciting adventures that will take you to big cities, National Parks, beaches, small towns and many places away from the tourist routes throughout North America.

Yeshe De Residential Volunteer Work Exchange Program
Cazadero (Northern California)
Volunteering for Yeshe De is more than just an opportunity to participate in a worthwhile project. It is also a chance to learn how to get the most out of any work that you do. By engaging in the Skillful Means program, work becomes a bridge to self-awareness and development. This unique volunteer work exchange program provides housing, vegetarian meals, Buddhist classes and a stipend of $150 per month all while living among the natural beauty of their country retreat center.

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