Environmental Studies

Internship Program

2017-18 Student Handbook

http://envs.ucsc.edu/internships/

491 Interdisciplinary Science Bldg. Phone: (831) 459-2104

University of California

Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Email: ckrohn@ucsc.edu

Twitter: @InternshipsUCSC

FaceBook Page: Green Internships@UC

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Environmental Studies Internship Program

Dear Environmental Studies Intern,

I'm delighted that you are reading this handbook; embarking on an internship not

only means that you are adding a new and challenging dimension to your

education, but also that you are following a different pathway to knowledge:

Learning by doing.

The Department of Environmental Studies offers one of the most diverse

environmental internship programs in the United States, and we encourage all of

our students to take advantage of the opportunities that internships provide. By

using your education in an organizational setting, you will be applying your

knowledge and abilities in a practical manner and will be contributing to the local

community. In this process you will also learn more about yourself. We believe

that doing an internship will enrich you, and that your experience, in turn, will

enrich us all in your remaining classes at UCSC.

Welcome to the Environmental Studies Internship Program.

Greg Gilbert, Chair

Department of Environmental Studies

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Interns at working in UCSC’s Arboretum

Table of Contents Welcome from Environmental Studies Dept. Chair……………2

Senior Internship Deadlines for Project-Thesis………………...4-5

Introduction—Your Role as an Intern…………………………...6-8

Responsibilities of Internship Parties…………………………….9

Common Internship Dilemmas…………………………………..10

Professionalism at Work…………………………………………..11

Six Stages of Intern Development…………………………………12

On Setting Goals…………………………………………………..13

Goal-Setting Worksheet ………………………………………….14

From an Agency's Perspective: "Tips for New Interns" ………....15-16

Why Keep a Journal? ……………………………………………....17-19

What do I Put in My Journal?.....................................................20-21

Sample Journal Entry……………………………………………….22

Writing an Analytical Paper………………………………………..23-24

Internship and Job Web Site Addresses……………………………25

Environmental Studies Job Resources……………………………..26-28

Agency Evaluation of Intern………………………………………..29

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Submission process and required format for

Environmental Studies Senior Theses / Senior Internships

Congratulations on completing your Senior Thesis or Senior Internship! To make sure

that the product of your hard work is accessible to future generations of Environmental

Studies students and faculty, the ENVS department maintains an electronic library of all

senior thesis and senior internship projects, including an on-line searchable database in

Endnote Web. The database is accessible to anyone with a UCSC email account; the

theses themselves require a password that is available to Environmental Studies affiliates

from the Environmental Studies office.

To make this virtual library work, all theses and senior internships must (1) follow a

standard format for the title page, (2) be turned in electronically, as a pdf file, and a

word.doc file to envs1@ucsc.edu .

1. Title Page Requirement. All Theses/Internships MUST include standard

content and format on the first page, as shown on the next page. Title page

information will all be included in the searchable Endnote Web database. Your

submission with title pages that do not include the required content and format

will not be accepted. Please print the Title page, sign the copy write indication

and scan a copy to envs1@ucsc.edu.

2. Paper and electronic submission. The campus no longer archive printed theses. You

are required to submit one paper version of your thesis for review by your faculty advisor

(unless the advisor gives prior permission for electronic submission only). You are

required to submit the final version of your senior project or thesis via email to the ENVS

office. Envs1@ucsc.edu during finals week. The files should be clearly labeled with

your last and first names, the month and year, and “ENVS thesis” if 195A or “Senior

Project” if 183B. We require a pdf version of your work and the original file (e.g., word

document). The pdf file must be smaller than 1.5 MB. This means that you should

reduce the resolution and size of all figures in your work to the minimum size while

retaining quality. Do not include full-sized photos of several MB; export them as

reduced .jpg files to a few hundred KB before including in your documents. If you think

you can’t possibly reduce your work to such a small size, consider that the pdf reprints of

most scholarly journal articles are less than 500KB. Save your file in pdf format. On a

Mac, simply choose File:Print:PDF:Save as PDF. Call your file by your last name, first

initial, and year with the .pdf tag (e.g., smithk2008.pdf). From a PC, you can create the

pdf using any of a number of free PDF writers, or using Adobe Acrobat Pro software.

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Sample Title page: Please follow this format and content. The abstract should be 350 words,

max. Provide 3-8 keywords, separated by commas that will help people find your thesis in the

database. Everything must fit on one page.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ

THE CONSERVATION PRISM: AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE

DEVELOPMENT OF CONSERVATION STRATEGIES

A Senior Project submitted in partial satisfaction

of the requirements for the degree of

BACHELOR OF ARTS

in

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

by

Joaquin Balboa Sapien

May 2016

ADVISOR(S): Gregory S. Gilbert, Environmental Studies

ABSTRACT: The “conservation prism” is an interdisciplinary analytical tool designed to help

improve conservation strategies. The conservation prism is comprised of four lenses. Each lens is

associated with a different discipline I believe necessary for a well-rounded conservation project:

ecology, culture, politics, and economics. The thesis analyzes reasons for biodiversity loss in

Costa Rica, justifying the need for the conservation prism. The necessity of local community

involvement in conservation projects is a recurring theme throughout the analysis. The

conservation prism thus helps to create strategies to aid community integration. The conservation

prism is applied to the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in Costa Rica, proving the need

for and effectiveness of the interdisciplinary approach.

KEYWORDS: Costa Rica, Guanacaste, Latin America, Community based conservation,

deforestation, tourism, development, tropical dry forest

I claim the copy write to this document but give permission for the Environmental Studies department at UCSC to share it with the UCSC community. _____________________________________ ________________________ Student signature Date

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Introduction—Your Role as an Intern

Congratulations on being accepted into the Environmental Studies Internship

Program. This is an exciting opportunity for you to learn practical applications of

your academic training, investigate career options in related fields, engage in

meaningful service to the community, gain new skills, and make a personal

contribution to current environmental research and issues. Please remember you

are representing the Environmental Studies Department. We feel confident that

the outcome of your work will be rewarding for both you and the agency for which

you are working. Whenever in doubt, please, ask questions.

Internships are distinguished from independent study in that you will be working

directly with a community professional, rather than on your own or primarily with

a faculty member as you might complete a senior thesis. Yet they are not

apprenticeships, where you are engaged solely in the agency work at hand.

Internships combine work experience with reflection and analysis. We cannot

overstate this notion of reflection. It is this wedding of theory and practice that

results in the student thinking more deeply about the academic and the field

experience. By applying your university skills and knowledge to your daily life at

your agency, you deepen your understanding of both your academics and the work

your agency is engaged in. Through journal writing, seminars, faculty support, a

midterm check-in, and a final analytical-reflective paper, you will have the

opportunity to gain perspectives on your internship that you might otherwise miss

if you were simply an everyday employee. To make the most of this experience

(remember, you are paying for this), we ask you to approach your internship with

an attitude of extreme self-consciousness and an eye toward critical analysis as

well as the engagement of active listening and questioning.

“Critical reflection on practice is a requirement of the relationship

between theory and practice.”—Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Restoration work carried out in UCSC Natural Reserve

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WHAT’S AN INTERNSHIP?

What distinguishes internships from other forms of active learning is that there is a degree of

supervision and self-study that allows students to “learn by doing” and to reflect upon that

learning in a way that achieves certain learning goals and objectives. Feedback for improvement

and the development or refinement of learning goals is also essential. What distinguishes an

intern from a volunteer is the deliberative form of learning that takes place. There must be a

balance between learning and contributing, and the student, the student’s institution, and the

internship placement site must share in the responsibility to ensure that the balance is appropriate

and that the learning is of sufficiently high quality to warrant the effort, which might include

academic credit.” (Source: O’Neill, Nancy. (Fall 2010) “Internships as a High-Impact Practice:

Some Reflections on Quality,” Vol. No. 4. Association of American Colleges and Universities,

Fall 2010, No. 4.) Retrieved from http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-fa10/pr-fa10_oneill.cfm

The Experienced Hand (Stanton and Ali (1994), pages 42-43, boldface added) explores

some of the issues that you may find raised in your internship:

Internships are delicate balances between putting out through work and service and taking in through the learning derived from such experiences. If the work or service element seriously outweighs learning in an internship, the experience may become boring and repetitive and lose its educational value. If learning seriously outweighs working or serving, the internship may lose its unique participatory element and resemble a "field trip" rather than an experiential learning experience. The trick is to maintain a fluid balance between the two. [As an intern, you will have to make] a complex and sometimes difficult transition. As a student for perhaps thirteen or more years, you have pursued your learning by reading and following signs and directions given to you by teachers and professors. They have been more responsible than you have been for what you have learned. You have been able to see quickly how you were doing through grades on tests, papers and exams. As wonderful or awful as it may have been, it was a generally passive mode of learning. You were only responsible for following directions and assimilating organized material.

As you enter your internship, you will quickly notice a huge change in your relationship to your learning and your success or failure in the internship. Very few people, and possibly no one, will tell you what to learn or how to learn it. The material, knowledge and skills to be acquired will not be well organized or clear and they will be interdependent, intertwined and difficult to sort out. Often you will not know what to do, how to do it, or how you are doing. In other words, a lot of the signs and maps to successful learning, so present on campus, will be absent; and you are quite likely at times to feel unsure of yourself, rudderless, and reticent about which way to turn. Your friendly professors will not be around to tell you either.

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Thus, as you may have desired or expected in your internship, you will be largely on your own and completely responsible for what you learn or fail to learn… [Your task will be to achieve a] transition from assimilator to productive worker, from one who is passively led through a set curriculum to one who actively defines what is to be learned and how to learn it. . . You will have to become an active, self-directed worker and learner and you may be surprised at how challenging and difficult that can be.

It is the goal of the internship program to provide you and the agency with

resources and assistance. For any reason, feel free to contact the Internship

Coordinator, by phone at (831) 459-2104 or email ckrohn@ucsc.edu

Research at the UCSC Greenhouse, atop the ISB building

Reflective thinking, in short, means judgment suspended during further inquiry; and suspense is likely to

be somewhat painful. As we shall see later, the most important factor in the training of good mental

habits consists in acquiring the attitude of suspended conclusion, and in mastering the various methods of

searching for new materials to corroborate or to refute the first suggestions that occur. To maintain the

state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry ― these are the essentials of thinking.

(John Dewey, What is Thought?, Lexington, Mass., D.C. Heath, (1910), p. 13.

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Internship Responsibilities

Of Student

• Set mutually satisfactory and feasible goals with agency and faculty sponsors.

• Become an integral and participating member of the agency/institution staff.

• Become familiar with agency policy and procedures and abide by all regulations.

• Support the agency and its staff in any contacts with the public.

• Notify the agency sponsor when you are unable to work.

Consult your supervisor when confronted with problems you cannot satisfactorily

solve by yourself.

• Schedule meetings with faculty sponsor and supervisor.

• Evaluate each meeting or activity that has been planned and conducted.

• Set a positive standard for other interns to follow.

• Complete work as outlined on learning agreement.

Of Agency

Orient the intern to the philosophy, policies, programs and services of the agency.

Prepare the agency staff for the arrival of the intern.

Define the agency’s expectations of intern including specific project(s) for the

quarter.

Determine, with the intern, the types of learning experiences that provide

challenge, growth, and success and provide these experiences.

Integrate the intern as a fully functioning participant in appropriate levels of

agency activities, projects, and programs.

Provide supervision by meeting at least once a week with intern.

Train the intern as necessary.

Evaluate the intern’s progress, overall performance, and the degree to which s/he

has met the stated goals and objectives through a verbal midterm check and

written final evaluation.

Of Faculty

• Meet with intern during the quarter to supervise academic components of work

(i.e. suggest readings, help students connect internship to a theoretical base).

• Serve as a consultant to intern and agency for technical advice.

• Meet at midterm to review and sign midterm report.

• Provide mediation support for intern if needed.

• Make a site visit, if possible.

• Provide guidance in focusing the final paper.

• Meet at end of quarter to evaluate experience.

• Write the final evaluation.

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COMMON INTERNSHIP DILEMMAS

Work Load/ Type of Work

Grunt work- photocopying, running errands, editing minor details

You should have a project/s to work on, not just grunt work

Take the initiative to ask for other types of work

Underutilized? Overloaded?

Co-worker Relationships

Do you feel resentment (Due to access to your boss or special treatment?)?

Do you feel like you are gaining some credibility with co-workers?

Unfamiliar with your role (why are you there?)

Time Commitments

Do you feel pressured to work overtime and weekends?

Make sure you let your supervisor know in a tactful way that you are to work only so many hours,

and that you have other commitments

Be careful about “begging off” for school work/activities

Supervision

Is your supervisor a “boss” or a “mentor”?

Who’s the boss? Too many bosses?

Lack of contact/ direction

Evaluation/ Feedback

Are you getting feedback on your work?

Take the initiative to make an appointment and discuss your work and ask for feedback, if your

supervisor doesn’t set something up with you

Office Politics/ Issues

Be careful about getting caught on one side or another of a burning office issues, or between

personalities

Snooping in email and other software programs by “big brother”

Peer Relationships

You may find you don’t quite fit in with your roommate’s time schedule

Social activities may be decreased significantly

This is all part of a transition mentality-student to professional

Peers don’t feel you work as hard as they do

Listen to their struggles as well as talk about your own

Being from UCSC

Have you encountered any stereotypes about UCSC students?

If so, how have you handled them?

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PROFESSIONALISM AT WORK: MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR INTERNSHIP

Expectations 1. What are you expecting from your work site and your supervisor? Are those expectations

realistic? If not, will you be disappointed?

2. What do you think your supervisor and co-workers are expecting from you?

3. Know what your responsibilities will be and understand what your role is.

4. Make sure you “hammer out” a job description with your supervisor so that everyone clearly

understands.

5. Know to whom you will report; watch out for multiple bosses.

Daily Conduct 1. Be careful with your appearance –dress appropriately; dress for the position you want, not the one

you have.

2. Be friendly; make an extra effort to get along with your co-workers.

3. Keep personal information to yourself, don’t let your life become the office soap opera.

4. Be positive and supportive; make others look good whenever possible.

5. Keep an open mind; avoid jumping to conclusions; try to make informed judgments.

6. Follow through; cover every angle of a project and be accurate.

7. Communicate –keep people informed in a useful and succinct way.

8. Listen –ask questions and hear how other people organize their ideas and respond to various

situations.

9. Be assertive.

10. Your conduct should be such that the employer will want to host UCSC students in the future.

11. Your professional manner may lead to a job offer/ at the very least, it will aid you when the time

come for you to ask for a letter(s) of reference.

Time Management 1. Plan and prioritize your day the day before (or use 15 minutes at the beginning of the day).

Research indicates that for every hour of planning, you save three or four hours of work.

2. Honor your working hours –arrive a few minutes early and work hard.

3. Know your self: during what part of the day do you work best?

4. Deal with the worst first –tackle the difficult issues or people early in your day.

5. Be disciplined and stay current with a single time management device.

6. Use a day-planner to remind you of important deadlines.

Networking 1. Develop a systematic plan to cultivate informal interpersonal contacts and relationships for three

purposes: to compile information on your job search, to gain exposure to the job market, and to

gather names and referrals to gather more information.

2. Plan and structure your efforts to start with friends, acquaintances and relatives, then more on to

co-workers and supervisors.

3. During breaks, lunch, or slow times, ask co-workers about their jobs; find out what they do on a day-to-

day basis; what they like/dislike.

4. Ask how their jobs compare to colleagues in other organizations.

5. Get to meet/know the top decision-makers; they can provide valuable insight as to why and how things

are done; observe their influences; watch their management styles.

6. Remember that an effective networking meeting has a predetermined purpose, structure, and agenda,

but it is to be low-pressure, informal and conversational. Do not view it as an interview for a job.

Plug into Professional Activities

1. Try to attend shows, conferences, and professional meetings/lunches

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2. Develop contacts (identify yourself as an intern seeking to learn more about the profession; most enjoy

sharing their experiences).

3. Learn the trends in the profession.

Test the Feasibility of a Pet Project/Idea

1. If you have a particular activity or experience you want to try, don’t hesitate to ask if you can pursue

it (especially if it supports your learning objectives). Borrowed from: Messiah College Internship Program

Six Stages of Intern Development

Stage One: Arranging and Anticipating an Internship

- Characterized by excitement, high motivation and idealistic (often unrealistic) expectations.

- Self-doubt: "Can I really do this?"

Stage Two: Orientation and Establishing Identity

- taking in new information and establishing an identity in the work place.

- importance of learning new rules, rituals, and subtleties of power and information flow

- need to gain acceptance and to search for direction and focus

- may feel overwhelmed by new information or under whelmed by simple tasks required of them

as a newcomer.

Stage Three: Reconciling Expectations with Reality - have established work routine and no longer feel like a stranger.

- clarification of realities of work situation -- may be at variance with idealistic vision held in

stage one.

- awareness of contrast between work and school; work situation may be dull and routine,

doesn't have the flexibility of academic setting - there are serious consequences for being

late or missing work.

- at this point can feel disappointment, alienation. May respond by refusing to take the

experience seriously, by becoming negative, or by quitting the internship.

Stage Four: Productivity and Independence

- increased learning and productivity on site

- interns focus energy on accomplishing tasks and learning goals. Feel integrated into work

group, are receptive to evaluation, self-confident and self-aware, and able to negotiate

changes effectively.

Stage Five: Closure

- Creating closure sometimes difficult.

- May feel that neither their coming or going was noticed -- others are not sure when or how to

leave comfortably.

- May begin to lose focus or enthusiasm.

Stage Six: Re-Entry and Practical Application

- need to readjust and refocus -- on school or post-graduation job search.

- may be excited to be back in classroom OR may find academic assignments tiring and

irrelevant and fellow students preoccupied with mundane issues.

- may have difficulty translating internship experiences into skills and insights.

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On Setting Goals

To make the most of your internship, it is important to have clear goals from the outset.

These goals may be academic, personal and/or career-related. They may change as your

internship progresses, but you must define them in the beginning to be able to examine

whether they change, whether they were achieved and why or why not. With your goals

clarified, you can determine whether the work you are doing meets your needs as an intern

and take action if it does not. Use your journal to brainstorm, elaborate and clarify your

own goals before you plunge unawares into your internship.

If you have trouble starting, try answering these questions:

Why am I doing this? What most excites me about the internship? What are

my biggest concerns? What are my expectations of the agency, the agency

sponsor and my role as an intern?

You might then go on to examine your academic and/or career goals. What specific

knowledge do you want to gain? Do you want to see whether the regulatory process fits

what you learned in class, or how agroecology theory matches up to practice, or how to

design a display? Are you wondering whether you want to be an educator, a planner, or a

restoration ecologist?

There are also many personal goals you might have. You might want to gain confidence on

the phone or in public speaking, or experience with computers; perhaps you hope to become

accustomed to a professional workplace, to practice a second language, or to improve your

writing skills.

Finally, ask yourself how you might go about meeting the goals that you have identified.

What might you need to be aware of? Who or what would be a good resource? What

information should you gather and examine?

Avoid writing down your goals and then never looking back. The nature of your internship

may change frequently as you become more familiar with the agency and your role. To

know whether you are achieving your goals, you must reexamine them frequently, both

during times of upheaval, when they may be changing without your conscious understanding,

and during slow times, when you may have lost sight of them. You may find that you have

strayed from your original goals, and you need to decide whether to get back on track, or

revise the goals to reflect your changed perspectives.

At the end of your internship, take one final look back, and reflect on whether you

achieved your goals and why. This is an excellent component of an analytical paper, as well

as a strong final journal entry.

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GOAL-SETTING WORKSHEET

Goal:__________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Challenges:

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

How I will meet this goal:

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

Goal:__________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Challenges:

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

How I will meet this goal:

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Seymour Center at Long Marine Lab, Santa Cruz

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From the Agency's Perspective... Tips for New Interns

If you are "shopping" for internship positions, observe some important protocols: a)

be honest with the interviewer about your desire to find the right placement for

yourself, and that you are shopping around for an internship; b) do not accept the

internship and agree to perform the work assignments and then terminate the

arrangement if you find another, more desirable position; c) send a thank you note to

the agency you have interviewed with.

Observe the agency's policies and culture. Treat this internship like a coveted job.

Be on time. Always show up for your scheduled time. Dress in a manner consistent

with others in the agency. Communicate professionally with your supervisors, peers

and agency clients. Take initiative on assignments and complete them thoroughly and

promptly.

Plan to complete your internship/volunteer position unless extraordinary

circumstances arise. The agency you are working for comes to rely on your talents

and time to complete projects and work.

"Missed" work periods, deadlines, or scheduled meeting times can create chaos for

your supervisor who arranges his/her schedule around your availability and is usually

overworked. Unplanned absences must be explained and made up. They also create a

credibility problem for the intern. Valuable assignments may no longer come your

way. Call to re-schedule all changes in appointments in advance.

The organization will not have you doing just "busy work." We respect your

credentials and desire to engage in serious academic work. It is your responsibility

to take initiative in your internship. Please speak to the Internship Coordinator if

you are having any problems you cannot seem to solve.

Work that you perform for the agency is assumed to be confidential to the agency

unless you are otherwise notified. The agency may be involved in legal work, planning

work or other types of work that have policy or confidential ramifications. When in

doubt, ask your supervisor.

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Groundswell Farm, Santa Cruz

Be product and project oriented.

Try to be as self-sufficient as possible. Solicit ideas and guidelines from your

supervisor, and then proceed with diligence.

We are assuming that you have all of the basic skills in research, writing, and verbal

communications. If you find that you are lacking in any of them, get academic

support to perfect these skills.

Keep a binder of your work or reference materials so that it is easy to access and

reproduce your work when needed.

If you borrow reference materials for off-site use, plan to return them as

requested, or at the end of your internship.

Regard your project supervisor as your ally. Let your supervisor lead you in

suggesting short cuts, library sources, and good contacts, it could help you avoid

running in blind alleys.

If you have put forth your best effort in the internship, you should ask for letter of

reference/ recommendation. Discuss your evaluation with the sponsor and outline

any specific abilities or talents you would like highlighted in the letter. Be sure they

will write you a positive recommendation.

Plan to receive comments on your project work. Feedback is an integral part of

learning while doing. Expect and ask for constructive criticism on your work product

and overall progress.

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WHY KEEP A JOURNAL?

1. To RECORD your experience, thus saving it from extinction when you forget the crucial

details.

2. To REFLECT on your experience and its connections with your life, learning, and

decisions for action.

3. To ANALYZE your experience and its interactions with coursework and theory in your

field of study.

Taking the time to sit down and write about your activities, insights, and feelings is an

important part of your internship. Journal writing provides an opportunity to record

observations about your experience, your readings, and your discussions with your field

supervisor, faculty sponsor, and internship coordinator. It challenges you to think

critically about your work and draw meaning from it. Journals are an excellent way to

improve and document your active, conscious reflections on your internship experience.

Your journal serves as a vehicle to tie all the pieces of the internship together as well as a

documentation of what has been learned. There's no point to writing something down

merely because it occurred; you write it down because it is in some way relevant.

Rereading it can provide insights and understandings that serve as a foundation for both

your final evaluative paper and your academic work.

How to Keep a Journal

Some Basics:

Set aside a scheduled time each day to write. It doesn't work to leave it for several days

and then try to catch up. Let your entries reflect what you are learning--about yourself

and about the placement. Record thoughts, questions, and critical incidents; leave out

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rambling descriptive-style entries that tell what you ate for breakfast, how you got to

your placement site, who was there, and those very personal entries about yourself and

the people with whom you are interacting that belong in a diary rather than an internship

journal. Remember--other people are going to read it.

There are several ways to keep a good journal. Below are three techniques that you may

find useful. Feel free to combine them, switch from one to another, or develop your own.

Observing and Analyzing: Informal Journal Keeping

If you feel that you have a lot to say, then simply write. This is your space to record

major events, questions, discoveries, and feelings about your internship, as well as keep a

factual record of any information you might want to record. Don't spend the whole entry

describing your day, though. Note the parts that were important to you, and then move on

to your analysis of the situations and questions that you described.

Remember that though your faculty sponsor will look through your journal to verify that

you kept one, it is ultimately for you. Reflect on and analyze topics that concern you, and

which will help you to clarify your goals, process the experience, and write your final paper.

You do not need to impress anyone except yourself.

Questioning Techniques

One useful technique to keep yourself actively involved in your experience and to develop

topics to write about, is to respond to questions. Questions about agency organization,

relation of internship work to academics, power flows, ethical issues, and your own learning

are all excellent for thinking about yourself and your internship. The idea is to participate

and observe, to consciously examine aspects of your internship that you otherwise might

ignore. Listed below are some questions that may help you in this process. Feel free to

develop your own, as well.

1. What was the most important thing I learned today?

2. What critical issues surfaced that I want to think more about?

3. What did I observe about how the agency’s philosophy affects the way people do

their jobs?

5. What did I do when I needed help?

6. What facts or terms do I want to remember?

7. How did today’s work connect with my academic studies and my future plans?

8. What attempt did I make to link my studies to my work? What opportunities did I

miss?

9. What moral and ethical questions did I face or ignore?

9. What human relations problems occurred? Could I have done anything to improve

them?

11. Did I hear any opinions or interpretations that differ from my own?

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12. What did I learn today about the impact my agency has on the local community?

13. How would I change this day if I tried it again tomorrow?

14. What goals have I set for tomorrow? Next week?

Try closing your journal entry each day with the one or two questions that are foremost in your mind (you don't need to answer these questions).

One Final Word

Journal keeping, like any sort of writing, can be useless, a piece of junk, and an unpleasant

chore to produce; or it can be an exciting record of your work and a dynamic and useful

exploration of yourself. The difference has a lot to do with your attitude toward writing

it and the commitment you make to share yourself and your thoughts and feelings about

your experience. Only in this way will it become a useful tool for reflection and

conceptualization. If you find this writing becoming burdensome or overly difficult, ask

for help from another intern, the internship coordinator or your faculty sponsor. After a

couple of weeks' practice, this kind of writing should come easily to you and it will form an

excellent documentation of your progress during your internship.

Note: Please write your permanent mailing address inside your journal if you would like it

back; this will allow us to return it to you if you are no longer enrolled or have graduated

or moved.

Former interns on graduation day!

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What do I Put in My Journal?

Internship Journal

Begin your journal at the start of your internship.

This journal is a useful way of keeping track of what you are learning on the internship.

A journal causes you to think about your experiences and can help give insight into what you are experiencing and feeling. It also can be a useful record of your learning.

To be most effective, the journal should not be merely a log of events. It should be a means to analyze or reflect on the activities you are performing and the new things you are learning. In addition, it helps you to recognize important events and to relate your stated objectives to what you perceive you are learning and doing.

Record something in your journal each day you work. Be sure to date each entry. Write at least several sentences each day.

Use the following to help you decide what information to include in your journal entries: 1. Job Description

Describe in as much detail as possible what you will be doing during your internship. You may need to add to this description as your internship progresses.

How do your job responsibilities match your own personal objectives? 2. The Organizational Setting

What is the organizational structure? Who are the leaders? Who makes things happen?

Describe the work atmosphere at your internship site. How are decisions made? Is it a cooperative or competitive atmosphere? Is there a lot of group work, or do people work by themselves?

3. Journal Entries

Describe what you did and what you observed at your internship site.

Describe what was the best thing that happened to you today? How did it

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make you feel?

Describe what new skills or knowledge you have learned since beginning the internship.

How might these new skills or knowledge help you in future job searches?

Describe what people do who work at this occupation. Describe a typical day at your site.

Describe some of the advantages and disadvantages of working in this job.

How have your duties changed since you first started? Have you been given more responsibility?

What do you feel is your main contribution to the organization?

How do the people at the internship site treat you? How does it make you feel?

What have you done this week that makes you proud? Why?

List new words and their definitions that you encounter during your internship.

4. Questions You May want to ask your agency supervisor/mentor during your internship:

How did you become interested in this field?

What training or education must you have to pursue this career?

What do you like the most, or the least, about your work?

What occupies your time most during the workday?

What personal qualities are helpful?

What are the major problems or frustrations in your work?

How does this job fulfill your personal goals?

What books were influential to you in seeking out this kind of job? What do you read now? (Books, trade publications, web sites, journals?)

***KEEP A LIST OF CONTACTS. ASK THOSE YOU MEET IN THE FIELD FOR: BUSINESS CARDS, EMAILS, WEB SITES, BOOKS THAT DEAL WITH YOUR INTERNSHIP***

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JOURNAL SAMPLES

A. Field Notes (from The International Development Research Centre, Science for

Humanity, Canada. http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-137761-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html):

Jotted notes:

Earlier...“all people collected them (calchan) [wild greens, stalk, leaves] had time. Children.

Especially older women. Now. Too far. All summer. Cooked with meat. Poor people

potatoes. Lazy. “Young women won’t cook ’em...” Edge of fields...river...people.

“Weaker now...” “Poor food..”

Expanded notes as written up afterwards:

The old grandmother in the_________household told me that when she was a child and

even as a young married woman, people gathered the wild greens called calchan,

which were available throughout the summer. “All people collected them....” The main

locations were at the edges of the cornfields and also along the riverbank. They

gathered the stalks and leaves. Sometimes they sent the children to gather them,

but mainly it was older women who did not have small children to care for. The

wealthier families cooked the greens with meat, but most families were poor and

cooked them with their potatoes.

When I asked why people do not gather these wild greens nowadays, she said that “people

are lazy” and then she added that “...the younger women won’t cook ’em,” because

they view the greens as being inferior food and “poor food” (that is, food for the

poor people). She also said that she believes people today are weaker now and less

healthy because they do not eat the healthy foods “from nature” like they did when

she was young.

In this example we see that the expanded fieldnotes are approximately four times as many

words as the originally jottings. Also, the jottings are almost undecipherable. Only a

person who heard the original interview could make sense of these jottings.

UC Santa Cruz Farm

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ANALYTICAL PAPER

The overall question that you are answering in this paper is “SO WHAT?” So

what that you did this internship? Whom does it affect? How might it be useful?

How did your experience connect to your academic work? How did you grow?

intellectually and/or personally? Remember that since your internship was a

highly individual experience, your paper will also be unique, addressing those

specific topics and questions that concerned you. Also note that this is an

important means by which your faculty evaluates your academic performance,

so include a short description of what you actually did daily, and then demonstrate

your analytical ability.

Be sure to thoroughly examine your journal for insights, connections, changes,

small incidents that highlight larger issues, and common threads. Rely on your

journal for a sense of perspective on the quarter; the more analytical of a journal

you kept, the easier this paper should be to write.

Finally, be literate! PROOFREAD AND SPELLCHECK!! This is crucial, because

it is impossible to read a slovenly paper without judging it on appearance as

well as content. In some cases, mistakes even prevent the content from being

understood, and both your and your faculty person's time has been wasted.

Some topics, which could be included: The original goals/expectations and how they were or were not met

What was to be learned, and what actually was learned or not learned

The final product, its purpose, and a self-evaluation of it

How information was obtained

What problems were/were not encountered with the agency, people

you were in contact with, the final product

Controversy or questions revealed by the research or the experience

Biases of the agency, yourself, the university, the community

Pros and cons of the points of view

How the internship connects to your academic past and future

How your academic training prepared you for your internship, if at all

How the academic literature compares to the reality of your internship

Whether your attitude, perspective, or ability changed, and how

Whether your agency worked the way you thought it would, what was

different, and how you would change it?

Do you see a future for yourself in this area, and why or why not

Strengths and weaknesses you discovered about yourself

Questions still unresolved, things you would have done differently

Note: The questions change. They do not have immediate answers, they grow and

mature, like a fine wine, or a winter artichoke flower, but there must be questions.

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SAMPLE Outline of Analytical-Reflective Paper

I. Description of internship

a. responsibilities

b. skills learned

c. project description

d. problems encountered

e. your expectations/goals: how and why they were or were not met

II. Analysis of internship in terms of two or more of the following:

• agency organizational structure critique, including analysis of information

channels, power structure

• comparative analysis with similar project

• critique of methodology/program design

• analysis of the field (i.e.: planning, IPM) and how your project contributed

or related

• what you learned, changes you experienced

• ethical considerations/issues

III. Relationship of internship or project to academic literature

a. set your experiences in the field in the context of at least 2 articles

b. and/or relate your work to a specific theory you have learned in the

classroom

IV. How internship related to academic work

a. academic preparation

1. how prior academic experience related to field experience

2. adequacy of academic preparation

b. future plans

1. for coursework

2. for career

V. Conclusion

Still feeling unsure? Come look at sample analytical papers in the Internship Program Office. Talk with your faculty sponsor. Talk with the Internship Coordinator. Relax, and remember: it's your paper, so write something that will be of importance to you.

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ENVS Internship Program’s List of Local, National, and International Internship and Job Web Sites THESCA.ORG—Student Conservation Association has over 1000 internships for

students and those who have already graduated. They usually provide housing and a stipend. Good place to start if you have just graduated and need some more experience.

http://www.thesca.org

My Idealist—Local, national, and international jobs, internships, and chat room

on saving the world and other ENVS student interests http://www.idealist.org/

Coolworks—a national internship directory http://www.coolworks.com/internships/

Orion—a state, national, and international internships and Non-profit jobs

site http://www.orionmagazine.org/

Opportunity Knocks—a non-profit jobs site http://www.opportunityknocks.org/

AEOE—Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education http://aeoe.org/

Marine, Coastal and Watershed ResourceDirectory—internships all over the Bay Area and Central CA

http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/directory/resdirectory/rdindex.html

GoAbroad.com is the comprehensive on-line source for study abroad,

language schools, overseas internships, international volunteer and teaching

positions http://www.goabroad.com/

StopDodo—web site for jobs and internships worldwide, lots in England, Australia and

California. Very searchable site too. http://www.stopdodo.com/

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Temple of the Magicians, Uxmal, Yucatan, Mexico

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES JOB RESOURCES UCSC Career Center

Provides job counseling, job and graduate school fairs, on-campus interviews. http://www2.ucsc.edu/careers/index.html Federal Government

USA Jobs http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/a.htm Online search engine for all jobs in the federal government Environmentally Related Departments and Agencies EPA http://www.epa.gov/epahome/jobs.htm Fish and Wildlife Service http://jobs.fws.gov/ USDA Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us/fsjobs/forestservice/index.html National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/personnel/ Bureau of Land Management http://www.blm.gov/careers/ U.S. Geological Survey http://www.usgs.gov/ohr/ California Government

California State Personnel Board http://www.spb.ca.gov/ Online search engine for jobs in California government. California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board http://www.arb.ca.gov/as/personnel/jobs/jobs.htm California Integrated Waste Management Board http://ciwmb.ca.gov Department of Pesticide Regulation http://www.spb.ca.gov/wvpos/deptlisting.cfm?dept=Pesticide%20Regulation Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment http://www.oehha.ca.gov/jobs.html State Water Resources Control Board http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/employment/index.html California Resources Agency Department of Conservation http://www.consrv.ca.gov/index/jobs.htm Department of Fish and Game http://www.dfg.ca.gov/hrb/pages/jobswithdfg.htm Department of Forestry and Fire Protection http://www.fire.ca.gov/CDFCareers/jobvacancies.asp Department of Parks and Recreation http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=736 Department of Water Resources http://wwwdms.water.ca.gov/person/job/ California Conservation Corps http://www.ccc.ca.gov/cccweb/JOBS/jobs.htm General Employment Sites

Environmental Careers Organization - http://www.eco.org/

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Main programs include paid environmental internships, career conferences, career publications, etc. Earthworks - http://www.earthworks-jobs.com/ Jobs in oil, mining, geoscience, environmental, GIS and related subjects. Oneworld.net - http://www.oneworld.net/jobs/ Jobs in sustainable development, environment and human rights worldwide. Environmental Jobs and Careers - http://www.ejobs.org/ Covers environmental jobs in government, companies, and non-profits: engineers, chemists, technicians, geologists, etc. Environmental Career Opportunities (newsletter) - http://www.ecojobs.com/ Hundreds of job vacancies in environmental policy, conservation, education, engineering and internships in all sectors. DevNetJobs.org - http://www.devnetjobs.org/ International development jobs in UN institutions, aid agencies, international NGOs, as well as multilateral, financial, academic and research institutions. ETI Professionals - http://www.etiprofessionals.com/ Focuses on the placement of skilled environmental professionals (Geologists, Engineers, Environmental Scientists, etc.) in both the public and private sectors. Short Term Job Adventures - http://www.backdoorjobs.com/ Adventurous jobs, internships, seasonal work, volunteer vacations, and work abroad. EnvironmentalCAREER.com - http://www.environmental-jobs.com/ Environmental Career Center's environmental and natural resources job listing and career information site: jobs, books, career news, live career conferences. Helping people work for the environment since 1980. Cyber-Sierra's Natural Resources Job Search - http://www.cyber-sierra.com/nrjobs/ Employment websites arranged by category: forestry, water resources, GIS, etc. Outdoor JobNet - http://www.outdoornetwork.com/jobnetdb/default.html Mostly summer camp and related jobs in the United States. Outdoor Jobs / ColoradoGuide.com - http://www.coloradoguide.com/careers/ Environmental and outdoor opportunities from around the world: nonprofits, government, ski resorts, park rangers, outdoor guides, and more. Free postings for employers. The Job Seeker - http://www.tomah.com/jobseeker/ A subscription-based service that publishes job openings in the environmental sector. ECB Online - http://www.ecbonline.com/ Job listing service for environmental positions. Job Reservoir - http://www.jobreservoir.com Water and wastewater employment opportunities. Western Organization of Resource Councils - http://www.worc.org/involved/jobs.html Openings in land management in the western United States. EnvJobs-L - http://environment.harvard.edu/HERO/wrapper/pageid=lists/envjobs-l.html A worldwide, non-commercial mailing list specifically for free environmental vacancy announcements. Water - Wastewater Web - http://www.w-ww.com/classifieds/search.htm Database of jobs in water and wastewater treatment. Peace Corps: Volunteer Overseas in Health and Nutrition - http://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/ Improving health and nutrition at the grassroots level. Educational efforts include outreach, awareness, and prevention programs for public health, hygiene, and sanitation. Green Dream Jobs - http://sustainablebusiness.com/jobs/ Job and internship listings for jobs within sustainable businesses and organizations. Environmental Career Page - http://www.cnie.org/career/megajob.htm List of resources recommended by National Institute for the Environment (US). GreenBiz JobLink - http://www.greenbiz.com/jobs Free job- and resume-posting service for environmental professionals, from recent grads to career changers. EnvironmentalExpert.com - http://www.environmentalexpert.com/jobs.htm Listings for various environmental fields worldwide. Environment and Nature Job Search Center - http://environment.about.com/culture/issuescauses/environment/library/weekly/aa112397.htm About.com collection of links to other environmental employment sites. World Conservation Union (IUCN) - http://www.iucn.org/vacancies/index.html Current vacancies at IUCN and closely-related organisations. Ecological Society of America web page on grad school and cological career advice. The URL is http://www.esa.org/education/careerandfunding.htm Avian-related jobs from internships through professors. http://birds.cornell.edu/OSNA/ORNJOBS.htm A wide range of jobs for non-profit organizations http://www.idealist.org/

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Agency Evaluation for UCSC Environmental Studies’ Internships

Student: Quarter:

Agency Sponsor: Course no.:

No. of units:

Agency:

Faculty Sponsor: Note: 12-15 hours per

week required per 5 units

(6 hours per 2 units)

Please evaluate the student’s work in this internship. Be as specific as

possible as to work quality, demonstrated initiative, follow through, and potential

to work in this field. This evaluation is a requirement of the student’s internship. (Ideally

should be reviewed by both student and supervisor, but we understand this collaboration is

not always possible.) Please return by email to: envsinternshipoffice@gmail.com

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____________________________ _________________________

Signature: Agency Sponsor Signature: Student