The Department of Biology has an active internship program, and we encourage all of our students to elect this option.
Internships are arguably the most valuable experience that we can offer to our majors. Experiential education enhances our students’ knowledge, skills and abilities, and allows them to increase professional competence in a real world setting. Because we have three internship coordinators with expertise in biology, environmental health, or pre-medicine and pre-veterinary science, our internships complement the intern’s degree program. Interns are only placed in sites that meet academic institution standards and are willing and able to provide hands-on experiences and develop activities/projects where interns can apply scientific principles. Interns are closely supervised by their internship coordinator through weekly communications and regular site visits. Because of the successful performance of our student interns, we have forged many partnerships with excellent internship sites.
Internships
We realize that education begins in the classroom, but also that experiential education is essential for putting theory to practice, gaining real world experience, building a resume, and choosing a career path. Consequently, a summer internship is required of all environmental health science majors. The experience is invaluable to the academic growth of our students. The goal of the internship is to provide practical, hands-on experience and to enhance the student’s technical and administrative skills in a professional setting.
Because our majors have a strong natural science foundation and a broad environmental health background, internship experiences have included...
- Water and wastewater operations
- Solid and hazardous waste management
- Air and water pollution monitoring
- Food safety and sanitation
- Community, institutional, and occupational health
- Environmental chemistry; field and laboratory
- Environmental and industrial hygiene
- Environmental assessment
- Vector surveillance and control
- Environmental planning and management
Our internship sites include...
- State and county health departments
- State environmental protection agencies
- Municipal water authorities
- Pharmaceutical companies
- Manufacturing and chemical companies
- Environmental and engineering consulting firms
- Environmental testing laboratories
- State transportation departments
- National parks
- Nonprofit environmental organizations
For more information on internships, contact the chair of the department.
