SIBLEY — In today’s economy, hands-on internships can make a real difference for young professionals — and those same young people can make a real difference through national service. That’s why Adam Crawford, an intern with the Student Conservation Association, has arrived at St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge to get hands on experience preserving wildlife through land and resource management with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Crawford, 23, of Concord, N.H., is one of more than 4,200 SCA members helping to protect and restore America’s public lands this year. The SCA is the only national organization that develops tomorrow’s conservation leaders by providing high school and college students with conservation service opportunities in all 50 states, from urban communities to national parks and forests. More than 50,000 young people have served with the SCA since 1957 and as needs outpace budgets, the efforts of SCA members are more important than ever.

Crawford is a graduate of the University of Vermont with a bachelor’s in wildlife biology.

His rural upbringing and schooling are what he cites as motivation for conservation of forests and other natural areas. His continuing dedication to plant and animal life, both domestic and wild, on land private and public, he hopes, will lead to a long career of conservation of America’s most precious natural scenes.

SCA members hone a “conservation ethic” through their service, to the benefit of both the land and the individual. SCA experience leads a majority of members to become lifelong stewards and 60 percent of SCA interns go on to lead successful careers in the conservation field.

The SCA is a nationwide conservation force of college and high school-aged members who serve America’s parks, forests, refuges, seashores and communities. For more than 50 years, the SCA’s active, hands-on practice of conservation service has helped to develop a new generation of conservation leaders, inspire lifelong stewardship, and save the planet.

The SCA is a non-profit headquartered in Charlestown, N.H., with regional offices in Washington D.C., Oakland, Pittsburgh and Seattle. For more, log on at thesca.org.