Outdoor School Guide

• Season: August 30--October 14, 2022
• Location: Silver Falls State Park, Sublimity, Oregon (60 miles from Portland, Oregon) 
• Compensation: $120/day, with Monday-Friday schedule/Basic housing provided (optional)/Partial food provided (while teaching overnight outdoor school)

The Outdoor School Guide Opportunity

This fall, you teach Outdoor School at Camp Silver Creek within Silver Falls State Park, Oregon’s most beloved and largest state park and the ancestral home of the Kalapuya and Molalla people. Throughout the course of a 3 or 4 day overnight program, you’ll guide students through inquiry-based and student-centered curriculum developed with the guidance of The BEETLES Project, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and our team’s equity consultants. By the end of students’ time with you, they’ll gain understanding and appreciation of the land as an interconnected system and their place within it. 

As an Outdoor School Guide, your fall season will be a combination of training, pre- and post-classroom visits, prep days, and 3-4 day overnight outdoor school with 8-10 hour days and one evening program commitment each week. Opal Creek Outdoor School is in a new phase and through your teaching, feedback, and ideas you’ll play a major role in shaping the outdoor school experience for students and guides for years to come! 

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

A successful candidate will possess these minimum qualifications. We are less interested in the titles you’ve held and more interested in what you’ve actually done and who you are.

• 1+ seasons/school years teaching experience, formal or informal
• 1+ seasons working with youth in a camp setting, or equivalent experience
• Strong group leadership and management skills
• Strong communication skills
• WFA or equivalent certification (we may be able to help you get certified if you are not currently)
• COVID-19 vaccine (by time of employment)
• Able to walk/move up to a mile on uneven terrain each day
• Able to pass a criminal background check

We are committed to having an applicant pool that reflects the diversity of the students we work with, and we highly encourage Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to apply.

How to apply:

Please submit an application by visiting the employment page of our website. The application includes a series of questions and asks you to upload a detailed resume in PDF format. Be sure to include any relevant experience and certifications, both professional and personal experience.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and these positions are open until filled. If you are seeing this posting, position(s) are still available and we encourage you to apply. We anticipate hiring 3 Outdoor School Guides, and the start date is August 30, 2022.

Please contact hiring@opalcreek.org with any questions and to request any accommodations you would like made during this hiring process. We’ll do our best to respond to all queries and to keep all applicants up to date on how the process unfolds.