Internships
Internships provide an opportunity for you to explore a career field and apply your academic knowledge to a real world experience.
Internships are not required, but they are highly encouraged. They are one way to fulfill the major’s Professional Preparation category.
You should consider taking GEP 310: Professional Development before doing an internship, preferably in your late junior or early senior year. In that course, you will explore career fields and identify internships that are relevant to the specific career fields that you are interested in pursuing.
Examples of organizations where many students have done internships
GEP maintains a Canvas site that lists a wide variety of internships, organized by career area. To get access to that site, email the internship coordinator directly (currently Dr. Rheyna Laney) and ask to be invited.
Internships at Fairfield Osborn Preserve:
Naturalist Training and Internship
Students learn the natural history of the preserve and receive training in pedagogical techniques for environmental education. Then, students practice these skills leading tours of the preserve for children and adults as an Osborn Naturalists.
Land Management Training and Internship
Students learn techniques and strategies for restoring creeks, woodlands and grasslands, including species identification, ecology, use of restoration tools, and management plan design. They then apply those skills working on long-term restoration projects with experts from local non-profits partners.
Internships in the Native Plant & Butterfly Gardens
GEP helps to maintain the Native Plant & Butterfly Gardens, and regularly recruits students to help manage the space. Students gain practical skills in native plant propagation, invasive species eradication, and other ecological restoration techniques. GEP students who are exploring careers in ecological restoration can use this work as an internship for credit in the GEP major.
For more information, contact Heidi Herrmann at: herrmanh@sonoma.edu
Internship Logistics
Internships require 45 hours of work for each unit of credit. Most GEP students will pursue 2-unit internships. Be careful about taking on too much work within a semester.
You do NOT register for the internship course (GEP 317) as you would any other course. Internships are ‘contract courses’ that require a different signup process.
The GEP internship coordinator (currently Dr. Rheyna Laney) maintains a Canvas site for managing that registration process. On that site, you will: 1) request permission to pursue an internship; 2) register for GEP 317; 3) file midterm and final reports; and 4) verify completion of the hours from your on-site supervisor.
To get access to that site, email the internship coordinator directly and ask to be invited.