Internship Opportunities in Environmental Sciences

Students will have an opportunity to gain practical experience through a 3 to 6 month-long internship with environmental consulting or engineering firms, businesses involved in land use planning, or with agencies in the public sector such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or the Bureau of Land Management. All of these government agencies have extensive laboratories and facilities in the Corvallis area. During their internships, students will become aware of the costs of protecting resources, career opportunities in the field of environmental monitoring and risk assessment, and the size of the environmental industry in the business world today.

The internship should be a rigorous training experience (http://psm.science.oregonstate.edu/internships), but is flexible with respect to focus and timeline to attract internship providers and meet students’ specific career goals and interests. The student’s Graduate Committee can help define specific objectives for the proposal and might be able to make some recommendations to identify potential host agencies. The PSM Program Coordinator will also provide guidance during exploration of project options; however, it is up to the student to formally secure and initiate the internship with an industry supervisor.

The following companies have provided internships for PSM Environmental Sciences students in the past or have hired graduates from this program:

• Adamus Resource Assessments, Inc. (Corvallis OR)
• ATI Wah Chang (Albany OR)
• Bureau of Land Management (Yuma AZ)
• Burns & McDonnell (Kansas City, MO)
• Earth Design Consultants (Corvallis, OR)
• Environmental Protection Agency (Corvallis OR)
• Iowa Department of Nautral Resources
• Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District (Newport, OR)
• Mt. Hood River Ranger District (Mt Hood OR)
• National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Inc. (Corvallis OR)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Newport OR)
• The Nature Conservancy (Eugene OR)
• Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (Salem OR)
• Oregon Watershed Councils (Eugene OR)
• Pacific Habitat Services, Inc. (Wilsonville OR)
• W&H Pacific, Inc. (Portland OR)
• Yakima Nation Wildlife (Toppenish, WA)
• Zia Engineering and Environmental Consultants, LLC (Windsor Heights IA)

The following organizations might be helpful or have an interest in hiring interns in the future:

• Anderson Risk Analysis (Salem OR)
• Black and Veatch (Lake Oswego OR)

An overview of companies and agencies that have hired and supported PSM students in the U.S. can be viewed on the national PSM website. Explore additional internship opportunities at the Ecological Careers Organization.