Seasonal Children's Farmyard Educator

Seasonal Children's Farmyard Educator

Supervisor:
Children's Farmyard Manager

Employee Status:
Seasonal

Location:

On-site (Farm Barn at Shelburne Farms: 1611 Harbor Rd, Shelburne, VT 05482) Housing is not available for this position.

Employment dates:
August 2026 - October 22, 2026

Work Schedule:

Variable schedule between 3-5 days that includes weekends and holidays | 8:30am-5:00pm

Final date to receive applications:
Position is open until filled.

Shelburne Farms is an education nonprofit on a mission to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future. We believe that transformative learning experiences sow the seeds for a thriving and more just world. Our work seeks to create the space, spark the conversations, and share the stories to inspire educators, students, and learners of all ages to build a better future for everyone.

We realize our mission by integrating three key areas of activity: our programs, place, and products.

We are currently seeking a Children's Farmyard Educator with exceptional guest service skills. The farmyard is an outdoor educational space that is open to the public and school groups seven days a week, May through October. The goal of this public program is to educate and connect visitors to agriculture in a safe, engaging, and hands-on environment. The farmyard is part of our campus that supports our mission to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future.

• Facilitate safe, engaging, hands-on activities with our farm animals and gardens, fostering connections between visitors and their food and fiber systems.
• Welcome and assist diverse audiences in a warm, welcoming, and professional manner upholding excellent guest services.
• Orient visitors to Shelburne Farms - its mission, programs, products, and campus.
• Clean animal yards, barns, and pens as well as visitor and education spaces.
• Care for our farm animals and garden while engaging visitors in your work. Animals include: sheep, goats, rabbits, cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, donkeys.
• Bring the cheddar making process to life for visitors through interpretive education in our cheese making and information hub.
• Support ongoing maintenance projects - ex. string trimming, fence maintenance.
• Mentor Youth Farmyard Educators (ages 13-18) through positive role-modeling. During the summer, these younger educators-in-training work alongside Farmyard staff to learn about all that we do.
• Foster a welcoming and inclusive working and learning environment open to multiple perspectives, for all program participants, guests, and staff.
• Communicate honestly and effectively with the team to create a respectful and open work environment.
• Attend orientation, training, and staff meetings as required.

• Each morning, staff gather for a brief meeting to create a schedule of activities and discuss updates, projects, and animal care tasks for the day. This is followed by cleaning and preparing the farmyard for visitor arrival.
• Approximate breakdown of daily duties:
• 30% Leading hands-on activities and presentations with visitors such as spinning sheep's wool into yarn bracelets, hand milking one of our visiting dairy cows, visiting our sheep in their pasture, and afternoon animal chores.
• 30% Welcoming visitors and engaging them in conversations around our animals and gardens and their connection to agriculture and our food system, as well as answering visitor questions about our campus, mission, history, and products.
• 25% Completing ongoing farm tasks such as animal chores, deep cleaning barns, moving portable fencing, and string trimming
• 15% Bringing the cheddar making process to life for visitors through interpretive education in our cheese making and information hub.
• At the end of each day, staff close down the farmyard, return animals to their pastures, and prepare the space for the following day.

• Able to work weekends and holidays.
• Experience in education or public interpretation.
• Basic knowledge/understanding of food, fiber and farm systems.
• Able to handle challenging situations with a solution-oriented mindset and a calm demeanor.
• Willingness to receive feedback and be open to learning and improvement.
• Have a positive attitude and remain flexible to changing program needs
• Committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive working and learning environment for all program participants, guests, and staff.
• A completed background check is a condition of employment as you're working with minors.

• Outdoor work environment with varied weather conditions including summer heat and humidity.
• Navigate hilly and uneven terrain throughout each day.
• Work with and around large farm animals, hay, bedding, dust, and animal manure.
• Lift and move items weighing up to 50 lbs periodically.

To Apply

If our vision and mission excite you, we hope you will share with us your experience and skill set that you feel would qualify you to make a contribution to the…