COVINGTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- The Lackawanna College Environmental Education Center near Daleville offers a variety of programs for all ages. A program that started just this past fall provides high school grads with all the necessary skills to apply for a job with the Pennsylvania DCNR.
Students at Lackawanna College Environmental Center have the opportunity to have a unique program right here in their own backyard.
The Conservation and Natural Resource certificate program covers field biology and park management courses over 15 weeks in the fall semester.
"I haven't come across any like it in Pennsylvania," said director Sharon Yanik-Craig. "We're on our own 211-acre property so we have a mixed deciduous hardwood forest. We have open meadows and open fields. We have marshes and a stream that runs through the property so we use all of that for a living laboratory for our students."
Courses are geared toward giving students a hands-on learning experience.
"There's going to be a lot of field trips. They travel to over a dozen ecologically sensitive areas in our region including a lot of state parks," Yanik-Craig said.
The credits earned through this certificate program can be applied toward a degree at another college or can lead to other options.
"They're ready to take the civil service test and be eligible for entry-level positions as a park or forest rangers in municipal, state, and county park systems."
If you would like more information about the program or are interested in applying, there's an info session coming up at the Lackawanna College Environmental Center on May 9.