How do I Choose the Best Environmental Internship?

The best environmental internship depends on your long-term employment goals. For example, you can focus on how people can responsibly enjoy the environment by working with recreation organizations. An internship with a non-profit advocacy group can help you bring environmental issues to the public. Your desire for a career in the outdoors might lead you to choose an internship with a public park system. Your internship experience might lead you to a company looking to strengthen its reputation for as a green, or environmentally friendly, business.

You can mix your love of outdoor sports with a desire to educate the public during your environmental internship. Outdoor organizations might focus on a particular sport or activity that can only be completed with environmental interaction. An intern with one of these recreation organization might help organize camping, climbing, and kayaking excursions. This environmental internship might also require compiling facts about a specific ecosystem for publications and presentations, either print or online. An outdoor organization would give you the chance to help sports enthusiasts appreciate the importance of a healthy environment.

Another option for your environmental internship is to assist an advocacy group with its public outreach campaigns. An advocacy group might try to persuade businesses and governments to more aggressively help clean up the air, water, and soil. Your internship with an advocacy group might require researching past public statements and polices of alleged polluters. You might be assigned to plan fundraisers or create position papers and web content to help the organization achieve its advocacy goals. In some situations, your internship may involve organizing public demonstrations against alleged environmental polluters.

An environmental internship with a public parks system allows you to help maintain spaces used by the entire community. Your internship supervisor may send you out on routine tours of a park to ensure visitor compliance with system rules. The parks system might assign interns to rejuvenate specific parks by painting signs, mending fences, and reseeding green spaces. Your environmental internship with a parks system could involve answering visitor questions about each park and conducting tours. Local and regional governments might also need the help of interns or volunteers during special events at public parks.

Your interest in environmental education can be pursued with an internship at a local business trying to project a more environmentally friendly attitude. You might be assigned to a facilities team attempting to reduce pollution caused during company operations and to manufacture new environmentally friendly products. Another task could be contacting local advocacy groups, parks systems, and other businesses to create environmental partnerships. This internship may also require organizing environmental outreach and cleanup events for employees. You might participate in events ranging from cleaning up local roadways to gathering donations from employees to support non-profit environmental groups.