At Work

• The school year internship primarily focuses on elementary-aged education, while the summer internship works with camps and kids of all ages.
• Besides learning about environmental education, interns learn about the every day workings of a nature center. This includes things like creating displays, upkeep and organization of the building, and helping visitors.
• Faribault is a diverse community, therefore, River Bend hosts different cultural programs, in which interns are encouraged to participate.

• Interns are involved with planning, organizing, and participating in special events at RBNC.
• As an Intern, you will have a chance to help with other educational programs, including science classes for home school programs and waste education for the elementary schools of Rice County.
• When you work at River Bend, you are working as a team in a close knit group.

At Home

Click onthe underlined words for pictures!

• River Bend Nature Center provides housing for its interns, including all utilities and basic cable TV.
• The house is fully furnished, with everything from a dining room table, couches, coffee tables, a TV, and even a VCR/DVD player and stereo.
• The house has two levels, both with two bedrooms, a bathroom (upstairs bathroom, downstairs bathroom), and a living room (upstairs living room, downstairs living room).

• The kitchen is upstairs and fully equipped with utensils, plates, cups, pans, and anything you could need, except a dishwasher!
• Each bedroom has a dresser, twin sized bed, ceiling fan, closet, and a cable outlet (room 1, room 2, room 3, room 4).
• A large backyard with apple trees, vegetable gardens, and a compost pile, is great for relaxing. There is also a back porch large enough for patio furniture and a grill, which the house has, including a second, completely vegan grill.
• Spacious garages provide space for cars, storage, or even working out!
• Downstairs has a utility room with on site laundry and an extra refrigerator, which is helpful for food storage.
• The drive way is large enough to fit four cars comfortably.

At Play

• The Faribault community accepts River Bend Interns with open arms and is very generous.
• Faribault has a small town feel, but it is culturally diverse. It is home to the State Academy for the Deaf, the State Academy for the Blind, Mexican and Somali populations, and Shattuck-St Mary’s (a prep school known for its hockey program)
• Faribault offers great mountain biking and cross country ski trails right at River Bend Nature Center, as well as a very active bike and ski club, called The Faribault Flyers.

• The Cannon Valley Trail is a path about 20 miles long and runs from Cannon Falls to Red Wing. Big Woods State Park, in nearby Nerstand, is also close to Faribault.
• There are extra curricular opportunities with craft and art classes offered at both Nook and Cranny and Paradise Center for the Arts, buisnesses located in downtown Faribault.
• The library has extended hours most evenings of the week, and a great collection of books, movies and music.
• The town has a variety of restaurants, including Italian and Mexican restaurants.

• Faribault is about a 45 minute drive from the Mall of America, REI and the airport.
• There is an outlet center about 20 minutes south of Faribault, in Medford.
• Faribault is fairly close to the Twin Cities, which provides opportunities to attend concerts, professional and college sporting events, including Twins games (which can be fairly reasonable, $7 for "cheap seats").
• There are other small communities close by, including Northfield (home of St Olaf College and Carleton College).
• We are close to Owatonna (about ½ hour away), which has stores like Kohl’s, Target, Fleet Farm, and Cabela’s, which Faribault does not have. It also has a lot of city parks and nearby state park to mountain bike or cross country ski. There is even the Morehouse Park Chalet where you can ice skate on the Straight River (rentals available!).
• AND WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN EXPLORING!

Family Dinner

Each Wednesday night we cook for each other.

RBNC Ramble

Ramble is a big fundraiser for RBNC and a fun chance to see community support for River Bend.

Pumpkins

At Halloween we carved pumpkins. We took them to work and used them for decorations during Enchanted Forest.

Jump Gym

After Enchanted Forest we had to dry out the jump gym, so why not put it in our backyard?