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A total of 56 students from the city's environmental high schools set off early Monday morning to get a real hands-on lesson. For the next month, they'll live and work on nature preserves all up and down the East Coast, getting their hands dirty as paid interns for the Nature Conservancy.

"The students go across the East Coast. They work in 11 states, all the way from the rocky coast of Maine to the longleaf pine forest of Georgia. And they work to participate in hands-on conservation work on our nature preserves," said Nature Conservancy Director Brigitte Griswold.

The program is in it's 16th year, but this summer, double the number of city students will spend the month on beaches and in the woods, working and living in the type of settings they've only studied about in class.

"For the students, it really means their first paid job, their first extended time in nature and their first time living independently away from their friends and families," Griswold said.

"Since we're New York City kids, we don't really have the opportunity to be in nature. The only nature part we have is Central Park and it's manmade. So being able to step out of our comfort zones for a month and be in a different environment where it is entirely natural and really working and interacting with nature, it's the most rewarding experience," said student Chanel Ramirez.

And while the schools look forward to students returning with more independence and with a whole new perspective on the environment, the Nature Conservancy hopes the experience causes students to eventually bloom into some of the future leaders in environmental science and conservation.

"They learn so much. They learn to give to the community that they're working in. They learn about nature. And when they come back, they really change," said High School for Environmental Science Principal Shirley Matthews.

"There are a lot of environmental disasters that are happening now and previous generations did terrible things to the environment. And it's up to us to grow up and fix it as global leaders. And I feel that being able to at a young age go and work with nature, it gives you a whole different perspective in life," Ramirez said.