Lewis & ClarkCollege of Arts & Sciences

Environmental Studies

Internships (ENVS 244)

Environmental Studies majors are urged to complete one or more practical internships as part of their education at Lewis & Clark. The Portland metropolitan area and the Pacific Northwest offer many opportunities for students to learn by working for federal agencies, environmental organizations, business, city government, and other entities. In addition, students have access to a nationwide database of internship opportunities. Majors pursue internships as a partnership between the Environmental Studies Program, the Center for Career and Community Engagement, and the sponsoring entity, with the goal of providing long-term professional and career development skills to participating students, as well as practical application of the concepts and skills acquired with the Environmental Studies major.

Before Your Internship
  1. Visit 3CE.  Visit the Center for Career & Community Engagement (3CE) to discuss your internship interests, and how they connect with your academic and professional goals following graduation. Their staff will help you find an appropriate internship via their internship and employment database. If you already have an internship lined up, share the information with them so that they can build up their repository of internship providers.
  2. Enroll in ENVS 244.  In addition to finding your preferred internship, it’s also up to the student to actually enroll in the ENVS 244 course in order to receive credit. Fill out the Internship & Practicum Agreement form from the Registrar’s Office and get it signed by your ENVS 244 instructor (note: this is the LC professor who is overseeing the course and not your internship supervisor). Make sure also to enroll on the ENVS 244 Moodle page.
  3. Create a record in the ENVS Internship Database.  Once you’ve found an internship you are interested in and completed your consultation with 3CE, in order to get approval from ENVS you must create a record in the ENVS Internship Database. (Note: you will have to log into Moodle to do this step.) A good resource for starting the internship search process is to check out this presentation by Dr. Paulette Bierzychudek of the Lewis and Clark College Biology department. Each year, Dr. Bierzychudek offers this useful presentation to Biology students and has kindly made it available to Environmental Studies students.
During Your Internship
  1. Keep a Weekly Journal.  Keep a weekly journal on Moodle (login required) of your experiences.
  2. Complete the Midterm Student Evaluation.  By the eighth week of the semester, complete a confidential midterm student evaluation on Moodle (login required).
After Your Internship
  1. Meet with your Internship Supervisor.  Remind your internship supervisor to complete this confidential supervisor evaluation via Moodle (login required).
  2. Debrief with 3CE.  Set up an appointment with 3CE to discuss your internship experience, and ask your contact person at 3CE to complete the confidential 3CE evaluation via Moodle (login required).
  3. Create your Multimedia Exit Report.  Perhaps the most important piece of your internship experience is to complete your multimedia exit report so that you can share your experiences with the general public and prospective/current students. The exit report is simply a multimedia report saved in web format, e.g. a Powerpoint presentation saved as PDF or a movie saved as QuickTime. Make sure to include information about a) whom you worked for, b) what you did, c) when you did it (i.e., which semester & year as well as the amount of time you worked), and d) the main professional & academic skills you cultivated as a result of the internship. You’ll want to plan ahead before your internship so you can take pictures or movies during your internship experience to compile into the exit report. Please bear in mind that your final report (as opposed to your journal entries) will be publicly viewable. Feel free to make it entertaining, but work to effectively convey the information requested above, and make sure your report is top-notch quality in all respects. When you produce your draft exit report, have your instructor or someone else carefully check for spelling mistakes and clarity. Once it’s done, simply email it to envs@lclark.edu so we can insert a link to it in your internship database record.
  4. Debrief with your ENVS 244 Instructor.  Make an appointment with your ENVS 244 instructor to do a debrief, and summarize your final thoughts of your internship experience in your final student evaluation via Moodle (login required).
More information on ENVS internships: