Branches Summer 2025
Branches interns attend Outward Bound, where they focus on team bonding, self-reflection, and becoming more comfortable with the outdoors
Summer 2025 Recap: A Season of Growth and Exploration
Branches is an after-school paid internship and workforce development program for Baltimore City high-schoolers, provided by Parks & People, with a focus on exploring green careers. Branches allows high school students in the city to be immersed in numerous outdoor and environmental experiences in Baltimore City. This summer's objectives included encouraging students to explore the outdoors, developing environmental stewards, pushing them beyond their comfort zones, and equipping young people with the skills they need to improve their future.
This year’s summer session, which ran from July 7th through August 7th, engaged 24 YouthWorkers. Programming ran Monday through Thursday from 9:00-3:30pm. Students were divided into three groups of eight, each led by a team lead and an assistant team lead who provided individualized guidance, mentorship, and support throughout the program.
Environmental Education in Action
Branches interns explored environmental topics such as outdoor exploration, water quality, invasive versus native species, aquaculture, dichotomous keys, pollution, urban farming, atmospheric science, and soil sampling. We continued our partnership with the Johns Hopkins Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC), who engaged interns in soil sampling and our on-campus weather station. Interns traveled to the following green worksites for hands-on learning that combined environmentalism and professional development:
Leakin Park: hiking, plant identification, and native vs. non-native species
Outward Bound: three sessions focused on teamwork, leadership, and physical enrichment
Division Street Landscaping: daily maintenance and care of community gardens
iMET: tours and lessons on aquaculture systems
Touchpoint: learning about the impacts of food waste
Hillside Park: private tour of the park pre-restoration (in collaboration with NOAA)
Cylburn Arboretum: hiking and studying plant species and pollinators
Backyard Basecamp: garden tours and construction of new garden beds
City Hall: private tour and Q&A with Councilwoman Porter
Stillmeadow Peace Park: clearing research plots of invasive species
Plantation Park Heights: garden maintenance
Cecil Elementary School: garden and park cleanup with the Parks & People team
In addition to environmental education and green job training, interns engaged in financial literacy activities with JPMorgan Chase and Truist. Dr. Sharmara Collins, a research engineer at Morgan State University’s Climate Science Division, spoke to the interns about her academic, professional, and personal journey in the environmental sector and discussed pathways to STEM careers.
