Experiential Learning
Internship and volunteer opportunities abound and are strongly encouraged!
Students can gain pre-professional experience by working as interns with resource management agencies or conservation organizations over the summer or during the school year. Various state agencies offer internships along with other organizations that are periodically posted on the listserv. Other potential internship opportunities are listed below. If you would like to sign up to receive academic upper division credit, you must fill out the following form with your Faculty Advisor.
Independent study
If you are unable to find a paid internship, research experience, or part-time natural resources job right away, don't give up.
You can get additional experience on campus. Get to know faculty, graduate students, and staff. Go to office hours. Ask questions. Don't be afraid to be interested and enthusiastic. If you are intimidated by face-to-face contact with a total stranger, give them a call or send an email first. Scan through faculty websites and talk to teaching assistants and advisors to find out who is doing the kind of work that interests you. Then talk to those professors or graduate students to find out if they could use a volunteer on their research projects. Again, it gets your foot in the door and is valuable experience.
If you wish to earn academic credit for this experience, Independent Study (NRM 297, 397, 497) credits are for students working directly with UA faculty either on or off campus. To enroll, fill out the following form with your advisor for the project.
Online resources for on the job training
- URSA–Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity
- Seven times each year, URSA awards funding to undergraduate students to support research projects as well as travel to conferences to present their work.
- Faculty members, postdocs and graduate students may apply for the Mentoring award opportunity each fall to receive funding to support development and implementation of undergraduate research opportunities.
- All UAF staff, students, and faculty are eligible to apply for Community Engaged Learning awards once each fall and Innovative Technology and Education awards once each spring.
- In 2018, URSA awarded nearly $300,000 in funding.
- Follow Conservation Jobs @ConservJobBoard on Twitter
- Alaska Conservation Foundation
- American Fisheries Society
- American Geophysical Union
Job finder. AGU galvanizes a community of Earth and space scientists that collaboratively advances and communicates science and its power to ensure a sustainable future. - Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Jobs in Zoos and Aquariums - BLM Internship information
- Bureau of Land Management in Alaska
- Disney World Internship Offerings
- Conservation and Land Management Internship Program
- Marine Conservation Biology Institute
- Missouri Botanical Garden
- The National Wildlife Federation
- NEON
The National Science Foundation's NEON is a 30+ year project dedicated to collecting and providing open access continental-scale data to better understand how our nation's ecosystems are changing. - Ornithological Jobs
- Pathways Project-Federal Jobs for students and recent graduates
- Point Reyes Bird Observatory
- SCA (Student Conservation Association)
- The Society for Conservation Biology--SCB Job Database
- Society for Range Management
- SWCA
- Texas A&M Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Job Board
- USAJOBS - The Federal Government's Official Jobs Site
- U.S. National Forest Service
- USDA Pathways Programs
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Alaska Conservation Foundation
- State of Alaska
Workplace Alaska for all types of jobs with the State of Alaska. Select For Students for jobs for students and information about the internship program