Internships

The Second Summer: Internship and Professional Practice

The second summer moved Scholars into conservation organizations across the country. Internships were intentionally matched to students’ emerging career interests, giving them the opportunity to “try on” different professional paths and see whether those roles aligned with their goals.

Internships introduced students to the realities of professional conservation work. Scholars were trusted with meaningful responsibilities within teams, contributing to projects shaped by real timelines, priorities, and constraints.

Through mentorship and feedback, students learned how conservation gets done in practice. For some, the experience confirmed a clear direction and strengthened their CVs for future opportunities. For others, it clarified what they wanted professionally, providing valuable insight before committing to a long-term path.

DDCSP Scholars gaining experience in wildlife sampling during internships

Sebastian Summo speaks on his internship experience at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

"My internship was based in the North Carolina State climate office. My main project was working on climate modeling for Puerto Rico. So I got to work with climate scientists at all stages of their career, received incredible mentoring, and also had the opportunity to go to Puerto Rico to meet with stakeholders and learn about how the statistical modeling that we're doing with super computers and opportunities for data science and statistics, how it actually connected on the ground, and the implications that it had for the Coqui frog and the local ecology. That was extremely meaningful, and it made me feel confident in conservation as a career that I would want. "
Shar Siddiqui