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Plant Conservation and Outreach Member Number of Position(s): 1 ABOUT THE CINCINNATI ZOO & BOTANICAL GARDEN AND AMERICORPS The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden offers opportunities for everyone! CZBG and AmeriCorps have partnered to bring a variety of fun, engaging, and conservation-based opportunities to audiences including youth, visitors, animal ambassadors, and more! Together, CZBG and AmeriCorps will provide quality STEM education to economically disadvantaged PreK-12th grade students, will engage Zoo visitors, volunteers, Zooteens, and community members in environmentally conscious practices and behaviors, grow and maintain Zoo and community garden spaces, facilitate data coordination for animal welfare excellence and conservation research, and support a variety of sustainability initiatives. This position will focus specifically on working with the CREW Plant Research Division to study and support the conservation of rare & threatened exceptional plant species. Service members will be trained in general laboratory skills and will participate in and may contribute to one or more research projects (to learn more about CREW's research, visit: ). The individual's training program will be tailored based on the selected candidate's skillset and aptitude, as well as current needs of staff scientists. What are exceptional plants? Exceptional plant species are species which cannot be seed banked using conventional seed banking techniques. A species may be considered exceptional for a variety of reasons: some species don't produce seeds, others have very low seed viability, and others produce seeds that can't survive the drying or freezing steps of conventional banking. These species must be banked using alternative banking technologies like cryopreservation, and are often propagated using tissue culture. The CREW Plant Research Division studies how best to propagate, store, and support the conservation of these species. The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is known for many things - our conservation efforts, our green initiatives, our friendly staff... but did you know that we have a strong set of core values that make us the best team around, and a Top Workplace in Cincinnati? We're more than coworkers... we're family. By building Collaborative Relationships, displaying Positivity & Energy, having Pride, Passion & a Sense of Ownership, supporting Accountability, Mutual Trust & Respect, and embracing Progressive Thinking, we have built a team of dedicated staff that focuses on our visitors, our community, & our future. This is what we believe and how we act. If this gets you fired up, we look forward to having you join our team! ABOUT THE POSITION The incumbent is a full-time AmeriCorps position serving 1,700 hours (40 hours per week) over an 11-month term of service (October 1, 2024 to August 31, 2025). They will report directly to and be supervised by Megan Philpott at CREW. Schedules will serve 5 days a week, 8-hour days, Monday-Friday. RESPONSIBILITIES Primary service goals include: Assist with the Oak Conservation Cryobiotechnology project: Sterilize and process oaks collected from the field to initiate them into tissue culture in the lab Regular observational data collection and photo documentation of oak cultures Data entry and analysis Growing and maintaining plants transitioning from test tubes to outdoors and/or shipping, including but not limited to: Routinely checking indoor growing spaces & greenhouse Watering, weeding, pruning, repotting, etc. Washing pots & terrariums Assisting with volunteer instruction for greenhouse duties General laboratory and greenhouse upkeep, including, but not limited to: Regular upkeep and subculturing of the CREW plant tissue culture collection Preparing media Washing dishware Maintaining and sterilizing equipme