Internship Awards

Undergraduate students with confirmed volunteer, unpaid or minimally paid* internships off-campus are invited to apply for URSA’s Internship Award.

  • Internships Applications are eligible for up to $3,000 for a Fall- or Spring-term internship or $6,000 for a Summer-term internship.

  • The URSA Internship Award will accept applications on a rolling basis as long as funds remain. 

  • Students must have a secured opportunity in order to apply for funding.

*Minimally paid internships are those arrangements in which the stipend or hourly wage does not sufficiently cover the cost-of-living expenses (e.g., housing, food, transportation, etc.). In these situations, URSA’s Internship Award would serve as “gap” funding.

Hannah Miller, Summer 2024 Awardee, with a CalCoFi team member collecting water samples off the coast of San Diego, California.
Hannah Miller, Summer 2024 Awardee, with a CalCoFi team member collecting water samples off the coast of San Diego, California. Photo courtesy of Hannah Miller.
Jung Woo Maeng and Jillian McCarley, Summer 2023 Internship Awardees, in front of a courtroom in Fairbanks.
Jung Woo Maeng and Jillian McCarley, Summer 2023 Internship Awardees, in front of a courtroom in Fairbanks.
Eligible Internships must: 
  • Be overseen by an organization external to UAF and the UA System.
    Internships must take place off-campus. Funding will not be provided for UAF or UA System-funded or partially supported positions. 
  • Be supervised by a professional staff member within the employer organization.
    The supervisor may not be affiliated with UAF. Supervisors will be required to verify the internship prior to awarding and will also be asked to complete a midpoint and final student evaluation.
  • Provide supervision, training, and/or exposure to the student’s career field of interest.
  • Be unpaid or minimally paid* based on the student’s cost-of-living need.
  • Preference will be given to students with volunteer, unpaid, or minimally paid* opportunities.
    Students will fulltime paid internships are eligible to apply (e.g., for positions with high costs of living as documented in the application). Please note, applicants are not eligible for funding beyond living expenses.

 

Ethan feeding a polar bear through a fence.
Ethan feeding a polar bear named Cranberry some salmon at the Alaska Zoo.

Ethan Stone, Summer 2023 Awardee
Interdisciplinary Studies: One Health Perspectives
Internship: Husbandry Intern, The Alaska Zoo (Anchorage, AK)

"My goal is to become a Wildlife Veterinarian one day and this internship was a dream opportunity to begin that pursuit. My main goal for this internship was to accumulate hands on animal care experience, and I definitely accomplished it. This internship provided me with countless opportunities to work with wildlife, and gain a deeper understanding of wildlife rehabilitation will be invaluable for my future career...I strongly recommend that every eligible undergraduate should apply for an URSA Internship Award. The application process is easy and the benefits will truly make a difference in your experience."

Kristal Bozeman, Summer 2023 Internship Awardee
Justice
Internship: Mentor Coordinator, Fairbanks Veterans Court

The Fairbanks Veterans Court is a specialized restorative justice court within the Alaska Court System. Veterans who find themselves within the Fairbanks Veterans Court are paired with a mentor who serves as a “battle buddy” or “wingman” to the veteran during the eighteen month program. The mentor coordinator is the person who recruits mentors, compiles tailored training based on current veteran needs, and serves as a liaison between the court and the mentors. 

"[This internship] greatly impacted my educational interests and goals. I am minoring in Justice, and restorative justice caught my attention early on in my classes. Participating with the court has helped me better understand the inner workings of restorative justice programs, which has been invaluable to my education."

Kristal in front of the court room
Kristal in front of a courtroom in Fairbanks.
Alex operating a drone outside.
Alex operating a drone in order to film another mapping drone that the team was test flying in the Mineral Creek riverbed near Seed Media's office in Valdez.

Alex Long, Summer 2023 Internship Awardee
Interdisciplinary Studies: Ecocultural Film and Photography
Internship: Film Crew Assistant, Seed Media (Valdez, AK)

"Through my internship at Seed Media, I gained valuable skills and experience in all aspects of filmmaking, from pre-production to production and post-production. Over the course of numerous commercial productions I learned or improved my abilities in: camera operation, drone operation, filming interviews, lighting sets, recording sound, editing, photography, organizing productions, working with a team, and more.

The URSA Internship Award presents an incredibly opportunity to grow. The kind of on-the-job experience you get from an internship is invaluable to your education, so don't hesitate to look for internship opportunities and apply for funding from URSA."

Grace Hopkins, Summer 2023 Internship Awardee
Security and Emergency Management
Internship: Disaster Program Specialist Intern, American Red Cross of Alaska

"The overall goal I had was to expand my knowledge and gain experience in the field of emergency management and disaster relief. I quickly figured out through the interview and orientation process that the experience I was seeking to gain fell under Disaster Cycle Services (DCS), which included disaster operations and management, client care, and immediate services. I was given the title of Disaster Program Specialist - Intern by the Regional Executive (CEO) of Alaska. During this internship, I developed further communication skills (i.e. professional dialogue) via Microsoft Outlook/Teams, workplace evaluation, and review, creating small and big goals, delegating and accomplishing tasks given to me by my supervisor, responding to a Disaster Action Team (DAT) call to a partial structure collapse, preparation for local news interviews (public relations), and 50+ hours of training. "

Grace in front of the Red Cross Van.
Grace in front of the American Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) during the Eielson Air Force Base - 2023 Airshow. This vehicle is used to respond on Disaster Action Team (DAT) calls, mainly to home fires.

Shelby Thompson, Spring 2024 Awardee
Fisheries
Internship: Intern, California Killer Whale Watch Project (Monterey Bay, California)

"My goal for this internship was to capture behavior of Killer Whales in wild for my research paper titled, "Killer Whales in Captivity vs. the Wild." I did just that! I was able to capture their behaviors along with their physical characteristics in the wild and compare it to that of the research I captured in captivity. A learning objective that I had going into this internship was to master species and group identification, and I can say without a doubt, that I have mastered it. 

"This internship sharpened my data collection skills, as well as improved my skills using a camera. I had never used a professional camera for documenting species before, and I left the internship feeling like a pro! I feel like I have more confidence to do both of these things. This is an extremely important tool for wanting to work as a research scientist studying Marine Mammals in the field. "

Thompson on whale watch
Alisa Janiger, lead research biologist for California Killer Whale Project, and Shelby documenting Humpback flukes.