.png)
Leadership in Storytelling
Welcome to our LiS portal! Scroll through to learn about our unique program and internship opportunity for middle school students in the Oakland area that combines storytelling, habitat restoration, and place-based learning about the wetlands and shoreline of the San Francisco Estuary.
Learn about the program from our Lead Storyteller: Marcy!
Follow twelve Oakland youth through six months of storytelling, restoration, and world-building on the shores of the San Francisco Estuary.
Join our next Leadership in Storytelling cohort!
Are you a middle school student, grade 6–8, living in Oakland or nearby?
Do you enjoy storytelling, games and learning from the land?
If so, apply to our next cohort!
Applications close on April 15th, 2026.
Programming runs from mid-May to mid-October 2026.
Participants receive a stipend.
Learning through Story and Land.
Throughout the program, youth participate in workshops on collaborative storytelling. We learn of the importance of storytelling across history, and how stories encode information about values, ecosystems and more.
Students learn how to:
-
Use storytelling to communicate ideas about science, history, and art
-
Design games and activities that center play as a tool for learning
-
Turn big concepts into engaging, educational experiences.
Youth meet regularly at the MLK Jr. Regional Shoreline to build a relationship with this critical green space. There, they:
-
Learn about native and invasive species
-
Explore how ecosystems function
-
Participate in hands-on habitat restoration alongside partner organizations, including Save The Bay.
Youth-Led Impact: 2025 Cohort
Between January and June 2025, twelve middle school students joined our first Leadership in Storytelling cohort.
Over six months, they imagined, planned, and built a Community Day of Action, while deepening their connection to the land.
In June, after months of collaboration and creative development, they:
-
Led their very own educational live-action role play
-
Engaged community members from across Oakland through story, play, and environmental action
-
Removed invasive plant species from the shoreline through hands-on habitat restoration.
What began as ideas in workshops became real-world leadership on the land and in the community.
​​