Life Lab Employment Offerings

Join us as we continue to cultivate childrens’ love of learning,
healthy food, and nature through garden-based education.

Full Time Career Positions

Gardener in Pajaro Valley Unified School District Partner Program

Our Gardener has deep experience and dedication to sustainable gardening and hands-on horticulture and garden-related construction.

See full Gardener job description

Life Lab’s Partner School Program strives to create a culture of garden-based learning in elementary schools to enhance science and nutrition education during school day instruction. Our team of Life Lab Instructors lead lessons alongside classroom teachers at our partner schools every other week at seven elementary schools. We host Next Generation Science in the Garden classes for all TK-2nd graders and Kids Cook Nutrition Education and hands-on cooking classes for 3rd-5th graders. All second graders also experience an enriching three-hour field trip to our Blooming Classroom on a western Watsonville farm. We facilitate school garden workdays and plant donations, and provide teacher training. Our partner school teachers report that our NGSS in the Garden program improves students’ scientific knowledge, enthusiasm for learning, school pride, and connection to nature. In our Kids Cook program, over 70% of students report that they like or love what they are tasting, and 50-60% are trying a new fruit or vegetable for the first time each class. Learn EVEN MORE about Life Lab’s Partner Schools Program

Job Locations and Travel Requirements

Life Lab’s Watsonville office is along the City Plaza in downtown Watsonville and is the primary work site for this position. Parking next door is available free up to 3 hours or with an annual city parking permit, and public transit is available close by. The schools of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District are located in and around Watsonville, Las Lomas and Aptos. The Partner School sites include expansive, flat and sloping garden areas with in-ground and raised beds, dirt and mulch pathways, and a mixture of shaded and sunny areas.

The Life Lab Garden Classroom and main office are located on the UC Santa Cruz organic farm, a 5-10 minute walk on a dirt path from the nearest parking lot. Closer parking is available for anyone with a disabled parking placard, and Life Lab makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with known physical or mental disabilities. UCSC parking requires a paid permit. Life Lab offices, the Garden Classroom, the UCSC campus, and PVUSD schools are all non-smoking areas.

Organizational Equity Commitment

Life Lab is committed to advancing equity and inclusion as we cultivate children’s love of learning, nourishing food, and nature through garden-based education. Fulfilling this mission requires that we learn about and confront the barriers of oppression encountered by the communities with whom we work. We understand that racism is at the core of many intersecting inequities, operating on personal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels. Therefore, Life Lab values and builds partnerships with communities where systemic racism creates barriers to nature, wellness and experiential education. Life Lab knows that a staff with diverse lived experiences, reflective of the communities we serve, is essential to the work we do. We also recognize that equity and inclusion are both goals and daily practices. We strive to grow and support an organizational culture that centers ongoing learning, justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and solidarity. We believe that liberatory garden-based educational opportunities and organizational practices support a more just future.

MOTION To adopt the following organizational Equity Commitment for Life Lab as the first part of our Equity Rationale to inform our vision, planning and daily work. (Approved by the Board of Directors May 20, 2022)

(This commitment is the first part of a five-part Equity Rationale we are continuing to develop.)

COVID-19 and Vaccination

Life Lab staff working at our PVUSD Partner Schools sites are required to follow school district policies regarding COVID-19 safety and vaccination requirements. Life Lab staff working at our UC Santa Cruz Garden Classroom and office site are required to follow University policies regarding COVID-19 safety and vaccination requirements.

Currently, the University is requiring all staff and visitors to campus to be vaccinated. Life Lab encourages all of its team members to be vaccinated for their own health and community safety, while respecting that individual needs and circumstances may create barriers to vaccination.

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