Cultivating Young Volunteers

Abstract

This article discusses how volunteer opportunities offered by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) created an interest in careers in watershed management by high school students. WSSC recruited high school students who needed service‐learning hours to work on its watershed, removing invasive weeds at five of its nine recreation areas. When the students began asking about careers in water and wastewater, WSSC reformatted the program to include career education. WSSC has used its volunteer program to market itself as a utility interested in working with the community's future leaders.