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Students, ages 14-21, apply for Earth Work Quest by submitting applications to Tanana Chiefs Conference. At the end of April a selection team will interview prospective candidates. Students will then be connected to internships if there seems to be fit. Internships may come in many forms. Some are paid internships through Tanana Chiefs Conference YES program if they are an Alaska Native student from a TCC supported village and the students meet lower income requirements. Other internships can be paid by federal agencies through programs like the Youth Conservation Corps or Student Temporary Experience Program (STEP). Finally some internships are purely a volunteer experience that reimburse students a small daily stipend.
In 2006 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided a challenge cost share grant to support logistic costs for interns and mentors. Ultimately twelve students from the communities of Arctic Village, Eagle, Fort Yukon, Stevens Village, Nome, and Fairbanks participated in the first Earth Work Quest Internship program. Their internship experiences included bird banding, trail building, collecting salmon DNA samples, assisting natural resource professionals such as geologists or backcountry rangers in the field, natural resource computer work, monitoring peregrine nest sites, and staffing visitor centers. Organizations hosting interns included the Alaska Bird Observatory, the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska Department of Natural Resources – Geological Surveys, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
