As you begin to explore opportunities, keep the goals and quality of the internship in mind.
The goals of your internship can include…
- Earning academic credit to fulfill major experiential learning requirements
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Exploring a career field of interest
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Refining your professional and technical skills and learning new ones
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Applying knowledge and theory you’ve learned in the classroom to real-world settings
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Establishing professional connections and networks for future opportunities and references
The quality of your internship will depend on whether it…
- Aligns with your major and career interests
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Fits with your skills and schedule
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Has defined duties and a clear duration
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Fulfills specific learning objectives
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Has an on-boarding process
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Provides routine supervision, direction, and feedback
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Includes reflection exercises to enhance your learning and growth
So, how do you explore the opportunities?
Start with these approaches:
- Follow internship announcements, posts and advertisements of companies and organizations you are interested in.
- Develop and propose a project with a supervisor, a project that you think would benefit an organization in the local community, on-campus or elsewhere.
- Seek out a “Research Internship” with a faculty mentor. This could be a volunteer experience in the field or lab setting where you assist graduate students and/or faculty with their research by performing data collection, preparation, analysis, etc.
- Talk to family, relatives, neighbors and friends that work for interesting companies or organizations. See what the possibilities are by asking lots of questions about their work projects.
- Engage in several informational interviews to get you out of your comfort zone.
You can use the following resources to explore opportunities:
- Read the CEOAS Student Opportunities Newsletter sent to your student email every week. Full of timely volunteer, internship, and job opportunities.
- Handshake - OSU’s university-wide job board with on- and off-campus jobs and internships
- OSU Branch Experiment Stations Internship Program - research internships across Oregon
- OSU’s Marine and Coastal Opportunities’ Internships - paid internships focused on coastal and ocean research
- NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)
- CEOAS REU
- Pathways to Science - search nationwide REUs
- Community and Civic Engagement - unpaid community volunteer opportunities
- IE3 International Internships
- Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholars Program
- Corvallis Environmental Center - internships
- Student Conservation Association - short-term programs working in national parks, marine sanctuaries, cultural landmarks, etc. across the U.S.
- Environmental Sciences Internships - information on internships in this field
- Federal Government Agencies - Pathways for Students
- Internship/Research Programs
- You can sign up for the CEOAS Student Opportunities Newsletter if you have already graduated and no longer receive it.
Network with helpful humans:
- Fred Polinder, Assistant Director of Career Development and Experiential Learning
- Mary Chuinard, Director of Undergraduate Student Services and Head Advisor
- CEOAS Faculty, Graduate Students, and major program heads
- People in organizations outside of OSU that do what you want to do
- Oregon State University Alumni
Once you’ve found a potential opportunity, you’ll need to define it.