Volunteer at YSI

These are the areas you might want to volunteer. Click on any one for details.

Animal Care - Help us feed snakes, exercise turtles, and maintain our animals’ homes. Volunteers help Staff Curators feed and care for our educational ambassadors used in our programs. We welcome Junior Curators beginning at age 14 (Requires training and a longer-term commitment.)

Instructor’s Aide: After School Program - Want to work with kids? Help Pre-K through 5th grade students learn about plants, animals, chemistry, physics and more with games, experiments, stories, and crafts. Volunteer Aides help teachers prepare materials and instruct children in a safe and fun learning environment. Minimum age: 14 Please contact volunteer@ysi-ca.org.

Instructor’s Aide: Summer Science Camps - Ready for some Summer Fun?
Then come to Camp and work with Pre-K through Junior High students. More than 140 camps are held on a wide variety of subjects. A minimum commitment of three weeks is required, and the weeks do not need to be consecutive. Each Summer Camp Aide works directly with a Summer Camp Instructor to help prepare materials and lead their camp in a safe, fun, educational way. We are no longer accepting applications, for this position.

Organic Garden - Don’t be a couch potato! Help us grow potatoes (and more!) in our Organic Garden in Sanborn Park, a hands-on learning center for school groups and summer camp kids. Assist our garden manager with planting, watering, composting, mulching, and weeding. Come play in the dirt! This is a great 1/2-day and full-day team-building opportunity for community groups and corporate supporters.

Professional Skills and Trades - You know what it takes to maintain your own home, right? Imagine what it takes to maintain three of them -- especially when you have 30,000 kids! YSI often needs the skills of individuals with expertise in various fields, from plumbing to carpentry to maintenance, and more.

Watering Native Plant Trail volunteer - Help us keep our plants happy and well hydrated! Volunteer time commitment is 3-4 hours every two weeks during the months of June – August.

Mulch volunteer - Help us spruce up the Viola Native plant trail in preparation for our summer camps! We have piles of mulch that we need to spread out. This volunteer opportunity is great for groups!

Contact: Janet Hoffman
Email: janet@ysi-ca.org
Phone: 408-356-4945 x26

Location Details: YSI Vasona, 333 Blossom Hill Drive, Los Gatos CA 95032

YSI Thrift and Gift Shop - Join the most dedicated group of volunteers who help operate the Thrift and Gift Store! We have many volunteer opportunities available, from sorting to helping on the sales floor. It is rewarding, supports the mission of YSI and 100% net proceeds go directly to YSI programs. Click here to learn more.

Marketing - Help is need with everything from taking YSI program flyers to your child's school or local market to joining the Marketing Team that implements our marketing plan.

Community Outreach - We have many opportunities to host a table or booth at community events...more than our staff can handle! Your help is needed so YSI can be present at these important events. Training and materials provided.

Desktop Publishing - Have a passion for branding? We do! Want to help us look our best? We do all our design in-house and would welcome your help on one-time publications and on-going collateral material.

Special Events - Like coordinating the big picture or helping with the smaller details? Help is needed leading up to and on the day-of our Insect Fair in May and our Wildlife Festival in October. You can help with a single task, like preparing materials, or with a bigger piece of the puzzle, like coordinating the craft tables. Or you can volunteer for just a couple of hours at the event. Like to throw parties? We also hold special events for our members and donors each year.

Fundraising - Can't forget this one! Our Science Matters Team would welcome your support as we introduce people to YSI at our "Under the Microscope" events, maintain relationships with donors, and hold our annual Science Matters! fundraising event.

Internet Research and other Surfing Activities - We like to stay up-to-date on trends and findings in science and environmental education. If you like such internet exploration, surf for us! Or, we often don’t have time to take advantage of many of the marketing and other opportunities that are free to us on the 'net. Help YSI leverage the single best tool in modern times since Velcro (or is it duct tape? Post-its?)

Volunteer From Your Easy Chair - Talk about a "kick-back" way to help: things that you can do at home while you watch TV...like cutting out nametags, collating materials, bundling fliers, etc. This is a great way to be "on-call" for us with various important tasks. Many hands make light work. Please lend us yours!