By Easton Lane 25C
ENVS students—it’s time to start looking for internships! If you’re looking to get your foot in the door with a specific environmental field or if you want to take a flier on something you’re interested in, now is the time to begin your search.
Payton Sullivan (26C) completed a Pathways Internship with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in summer 2024, and she has shared some details of her experience in the hope that other students can secure these opportunities.
Sullivan began looking for internships in late Fall and continued into Winter Break, mainly using LinkedIn and USAJobs to find opportunities.
“When I was looking for an internship, I really just focused on the ones that seemed interesting to me. I wanted to test the water to figure out what I would like and dislike about a job,” she says. “I would definitely recommend thinking about an internship as a learning opportunity to see what you would like and dislike about a job.”
In the Pathways Internship, Sullivan got a chance to learn lots about the USDA, including each of its many agencies. Internships like the USDA Pathways Program are designed to equip students with the knowledge and experience of working in government departments, and the learning experiences they offer are invaluable to future career plans.
Internships can also be jumping-off points for new career interests, allowing students to learn about different job opportunities they never would have known about before. For Sullivan, the USDA internship allowed her to work on a “local and state level,” enmeshing her in the intersection of countless government fields and jobs.
“I really enjoyed my experience with the USDA because I got to meet a lot of people who both worked for the USDA or who were seeking help from the USDA,” Sullivan says. “I enjoyed hearing people’s life stories.”
While LinkedIn and USAJobs are both great places to look for internships, there are many other websites where you can find current internship postings. For environmental-focused internship information, head to the ENVS department’s Undergraduate Career Resources page for an overview of different kinds of internships and where to find them. You can also look at specific company/organization websites for internship postings.
Sullivan is one of the most recent students to complete an internship associated with the ENVS department—this means that she also received independent study credit to fulfill one of the requirements of the ENVS major. Check out ENVS’ Internship Program page for all the information on how to make an internship work for your major, as well as information on how to secure additional funding.
As Payton Sullivan would tell you now, it’s time to start applying for internships! Make sure that next Summer, Spring, or Fall is a productive one, so you can really find out what you want to do within environmental science. Will it be research, policy, management, communication, or something entirely different? Only you can find out.
(Featured image courtesy of Unsplash, by Raphael Rychetsky)
Department of Environmental Sciences 