With summer internships on the horizon, ̽̽ students often find themselves navigating the challenges of participating in meaningful, often unpaid experiences while still having to pay the bills. Thanks to Summer Internship Scholarship programs – supported by the ̽̽ Career Center and the College of Arts & Sciences – students can pursue areas of interest while having basic needs met.
For Senior Ethan Peck, a Geography major graduating in May, the Internship Scholarship program allowed him to explore two hands-on field research (and career networking) opportunities that he may have otherwise missed. Ethan shadowed surveyors and assessors with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (an agency within the Department of Agriculture), monitoring wetlands for invasive species or violations by bordering landowners. At the same time, Ethan supported ̽̽’s Geology Department collecting sediment samples and measuring erosion and water flow in areas throughout Vermont.
While this work was hands-on and produced measurable research, neither internship opportunity would’ve otherwise supported Ethan’s basic needs. “I wouldn’t have gotten paid for either [internship] had I not had the scholarship opportunities,” says Ethan. “It was a big factor at least having my housing and food covered; it made me feel like, ‘Okay I can do this,’ without having to get another job that I’d have to work full-time.”
Ethan split his internships between the Geology department and the NRCS evenly, working four 8-hour days per week – nearly a full work week in unpaid internships.
“I had to fill out a certain number of hours working for the scholarship application – an estimate of hours worked total,” Ethan recalls. “I kept true to that pretty much, but not more than that, otherwise I wouldn’t be properly compensated. I also felt like the money I got covered those expenses, rent and food, very basic needs.”
With those basic needs met, Ethan was able to immerse himself into meaningful field research and networking opportunities directly in the industry he hopes to join when he graduates later this spring.
“[NRCS] works a lot with local farmers,” Ethan says. “If a farmer wants to have federal insurance on their crops, they must get wetland determination on new crop areas. Say they’re growing wheat as a cover crop and they want to actually crop the next year, they have to get a determination by the government to make sure the area isn’t wetlands if they want insurance. Given the amount of flooding in the past, [insurance] is very important to a lot of farmers because if their whole crops get wiped out for the year, the government will compensate them, but only if they agree to these determinations. It’s a give and take for them. If [the government does] determine their land is wetlands, then [farmers] can’t crop it, so they lose out on a lot of money. [NRCS] would go out and do those determinations. I was shadowing, because that was very important work, I didn’t have the qualifications to do that. But I was out there in the field, and they’d ask me, ‘What kind of soil do you think this is?’ I was involved in the process, it was very interesting, sometimes the farmer would come out, they’d be interested in knowing if their area was wetlands area as well.”
The experiences with both the NRCS and the Geology department proved to be instrumental for Ethan. Not only was he able to see the theory and academia in practice, but the networking and perspective from industry professionals helped him steer his trajectory and make the most of his college experience.
“I’ve had an interest in working for the government as a geographer, so getting to experience that type of workplace environment was important to me,” Ethan says. “I was in their day-to-day work environment, in the office and out in the field, I got to meet other [professionals] in that space. I realized a lot of them had interesting insight for how I should approach the future and opportunities after school. Being in that environment and learning how these people got there and their recommendations for me, and just getting into the field and doing field work, in school you don’t really get that experience. In the classroom you learn all the technicalities and the hypotheticals, but you don’t actually go out into the field and produce results, so being able to have that experience where I’m in the workplace environment, and I’m doing the fieldwork, that was very important to me. I felt like I had accomplished my goals.”
Ethan Peck plans to graduate from University of Vermont in May 2024.
The Deadline for the Summer Internship Scholarship application is April 11, 2024.