Rod Hankinson: Washington’s environmental hero and youth mentor for over 30 years

Picture yourself as an honor roll high school student with an eager heart, ready to help make change in the world.

You apply for a position at the Ecology Youth Corps, a program that gives teens from the ages of 14 to 17 the opportunity to gain valuable work experience cleaning litter from Washington roadways. You’re passionate, accomplished, and excited for this opportunity.

But despite your best efforts, you don’t make the team.

Fast forward a few years, and you’re now holding a degree in history and political science. You become an educator, helping to shape young minds and share your knowledge. In a twist of fate, you end up drawn back to that same Youth Corps program you applied for in high school.

But this time, you haven’t just made the team. Now, you are responsible for managing the entire program and mentoring hundreds of students.

That is the true story of Rod Hankinson, who turned a missed opportunity into a lifetime of impact and inspiration. He has spent the last 37 years training students in critical work skills while making roads and highways cleaner for everyone passing through.

Here’s what we can learn from Rod’s nearly four decades as an educator, environmentalist, and public servant.

On paper, the job description of a Youth Corps program manager might seem straightforward: ensure the safety and well-being of youth while they remove over one million pounds of litter from 4,000 miles of roadways every year. But if you ask Rod, he will tell you that there is so much more to his work than what’s in his job description.

For him, this is an opportunity to help shape young people into confident, independent, and hardworking members of society. He sees his team as a fresh canvas, ready to be painted with positivity and memorable experiences.

Rod emphasizes that parents do their best to set their children up for success, but students also need encouragement and guidance from someone they look up to outside of the home.

“Kids search for who they want to be and how they want to be. This program helps them discover that,” Rod explains.

In his eyes, every student who joins the Youth Corps has unique potential, and he’s there to help them tap into it. One of the ways he does this is by encouraging his crews to teach and learn from each other.

Many students join the program for multiple summers. Rod assigns supervising responsibilities to these returning crew members, giving them an opportunity to show new hires the ropes. This helps students gain leadership experience, as well as a sense of confidence in their own abilities.

Rod’s dedication to his team extends well beyond their time in the Youth Corps program. He serves as a professional reference for many former crew members, helping them navigate job applications and career advancements. For him, guiding their journey with the Youth Corps is just the beginning of a deep, ongoing commitment to their success.

Rod’s undeniable passion for Ecology’s mission motivates his former team members to return to our agency. One standout example is a former litter crew member who came back a decade later to work at Ecology as an intern.

When asked about his biggest reward over the years, Rod brings up a heartwarming achievement: many of the young people he mentored now have children who have joined the program. He feels that this is a testament to the lasting, positive impact of his work.

“If their experience with the program was so meaningful that they want their kids to have the same opportunity, I must be doing something right,” he said.

Moreover, Rod often encounters former mentees who are excited to share with him that they haven’t littered—even once—since their time in the program.

As Rod looks toward the future of the Ecology Youth Corps, he remains hopeful about the program’s continued success and growth. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, he is optimistic about extending the program’s reach across all regions of Washington state.

“Anything worth doing is going to be hard,” he notes. “It might not be easy, but it will be worth it.”

Peter Lyon, who manages Ecology’s Solid Waste Management Program, emphasized Rod’s contributions – and the efforts of the many students he’s nurtured – in keeping hundreds of thousands of pounds of litter off roads.

"Rod always calls himself 'an old country boy from Moxee,’ but he is so much more than that. He cares so deeply about keeping the kids safe and making sure they have a good start in what is, for most of them, their first real job,” said Lyon. “He has brought both passion and compassion to his role, and I think generations of young people in Central Washington have benefitted from his work."

Rod’s lifelong journey with the Youth Corps sets a high bar for the program. However, as he nears retirement, he is confident in his team’s ability to pick up where he leaves off.

His career is a shining example that inspires continued growth, upholds environmental stewardship, and embraces the endless potential of young minds.