Internships
The Environmental Science and Management major requires 3 units of internship. Each unit of internship is equal to 30 hours of work. There are two main criteria we look for in an internship for it to qualify for the major requirement - that the internship be science-based and related to the environment. You can find more information on internships, including resources for finding internships and where our students have interned before on our internship FAQ page. We have also set up a Google Doc that lists on-campus undergraduate research opportunities in environmental science, and see the California Intern Network website for a resource for off-campus internships. Please note that not all jobs listed on the California Intern Network will work for the major, but many of them will. Another option is to reach out to a professor if there is a professor doing research that you are interested in. For more information on research by faculty members in our departments, please see our ESP & LAWR faculty research spreadsheet, which includes the type of research undergraduates in their groups might do.
The steps to registering for internship credits are:
1. Find an internship; check out our FAQ for tips and resources.
2. Find a faculty sponsor. This might be someone you’ve had as a professor for a class relevant to the internship, or one of the track advisors or lead faculty advisors. If you are doing undergraduate research for your internship, this is the faculty leader of the lab you’re working in.
3. Fill out the internship form with the faculty sponsor, who will pick the internship evaluation activity.
4. Send your internship form to the relevant staff advisor for a CRN to enroll.
5. Complete the internship evaluation activity.
We can register summer internships in the subsequent fall (or next academic-year) quarter in order to officially register the internship experience without payment for summer enrollment. In these cases, because the internship activities are not concurrent with the quarter of enrollment and therefore not affecting availability for coursework, we cap the number of units for such cases at 3, even if more than 90 hours were worked. If you have a compelling academic or financial reason to register for more than three units when counting a summer internship in a subsequent academic-year quarter, then you need to request exemption to this 3-unit cap from a lead faculty or track advisor with the relevant explanation.
For information on Study Abroad, Honors Thesis, and additional FAQs, visit the Study Abroad, Honors Thesis, and FAQs page.