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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 emailed via the NRE student email groups. Other common experiential learning opportunities are described or listed below. If you would like to sign up to receive academic upper division credit by registering for internship credits, you must fill out the following form with an NRE Faculty Advisor and the NRE Department Academic Assistant will get in touch with you to complete the process. 

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. Typically, agencies and organizations start recruiting for summer season in January through March or later. 

You can get additional experience on campus. Get to know faculty, graduate students, and staff by attending seminars and get togethers. 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 or if a course listed in the catalog is not being offered but the instructor is willing to offer to teach it as an Independent Study course (NRM 297, 397, 497), the instructor and the student must contact Cathy Donaldson, NRE Department Academic Assistant/Office Manager (cdonaldson@alaska.edu), preferably at least one week before the end of the UAF Add/Drop deadline, to schedule the course. 

Sample Website Resources for Connecting to Agriculture- and Natural Resource-related Organizations