Biology Internships

Most students in our Environmental Biology Program completes an off-campus internship that provides experience and skills beyond those gained in the classroom.

Recent internship sites include:

Great Swamp Conservancy (Canastota, NY)

Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife

Izaak Walton League of America's Save Our Streams Program, Lime Hollow Center for Environment & Culture (Cortland, N.Y.)

Cazenovia Preservation Foundation (Cazenovia, N.Y.)

Student Conservation Association (Charlestown, N.H.)

Otsego Lake Biological Field Station (Cooperstown, N.Y.; SUNY-Oneonta)

Stone Quarry Hill Art Park (Cazenovia, N.Y.)

EcoLogic (Cazenovia, N.Y.)

Rogers Environmental Center (Sherburne, N.Y.)

Here is what our students are doing now (or were doing not long ago)...

Kyle Boeltz completed an internship with the Great Swamp Conservancy. He has been helping to organize educational events and preparing interpretive materials for hiking trails. He was recently quoted in an Oneida Daily Dispatch article, "Bald Eagle spotted on Pratts Road in Stockbridge".

Tim Nye completed an internship with the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife. He has been sorting and identifying macroinvertebrates, maintaining nesting boxes, and helping with trout stocking.

Leah McNeil completed an internship with the Izaak Walton League's Save Our Streams Program. She helped middle and high school students with macroinvertebrate sampling and identification and water chemistry measurements.

Janet Elliott completed an internship with EcoLogic.

Ashley Kerker used a GPS unit and software to map trail routes and points of interest as an intern with Cazenovia Preservation Foundation. Click below to view either side of the tri-fold map she constructed or a short article in CPF's "The Upland Journal."

At the Lime Hollow Center for Environment & Culture, Rachel Busch created wildflower guides for two hiking trails, led 5^th-graders on tours of Chicago Bog, and managed the Visitor’s Center on weekends (answered questions about animals and the facility, ordered merchandise, trained volunteers). To the right is Rachel’s photo of white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) used in her wildflower guides.

Caitlin Snyder's internship was at a Biological Field Station (SUNY-Oneonta) on Otsego Lake in the summer 2006. Her activities included the study of biocontrol of purple loosestrife (invasive wetland plant), evaluation of water quality in Otsego Lake tributaries, and fish community sampling.

Caitlin sampling water quality in an Otsego Lake tributary

Collecting scales from a largemouth bass for age determination

At the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Mike Malfitano was responsible for hiking trail maintenance and construction, which included addressing drainage problems and clearing vegetation.  He also interacted with visitor groups, helped maintain the park's gardens, and updated the park's trail and sculpture map.