internships

Interns at USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) bring new energy and insight to the workplace. Plus, internships equip students with real-world skills that will help them in their future careers.

Interns this summer had an opportunity to work in a variety of fields, including data analysis, accounting and staffing – all important facets of the nation’s private lands conservation agency.

Meet Cindy Lee, who worked as a management analyst intern in NRCS’ Office of Regional Conservationists. Lee is a recent graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where she studied political science and social policy.

With over 3 million students graduating college during the 2013-2014 school year, what sets you apart from your peers? The answer: internships.

 Internships provide an immeasurable benefit to both the intern and to organizations like USDA.  In addition to gaining valuable work experience, internships are a great way to network, apply classroom knowledge to real-life, on-the-job situations, and gain confidence.

In a few short years, high school students at Nature High Summer Camp on the Manti-LaSal National Forest in Utah may become newly minted natural resource professionals who make a difference in the world of natural resources.

The 30 high-school students from Utah met as strangers on a Monday morning, but left Saturday as good friends who connected with nature in a way they had never before experienced.

“It’s amazing to see the changes in the students over the course of a week,” said Sierra Hellstrom, camp director who works in the U.S. Forest Service’s Intermountain Region. “They arrive shy and scared, with little knowledge of public land management. They leave enlightened and a very tight-knit group, and have a hard time saying goodbye to one another.”

Middle and high school students from across the state gathered on the University of Kentucky (UK) campus earlier this month, to learn about potential careers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

UK’s College of Agriculture hosted the group, Jr. Minorities in Agriculture Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS), with the intent of getting the students interested in pursuing a college education.

Representatives from a variety of USDA agencies – including Rural Development, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service – talked with students about their respective agencies, explaining their missions and what career fields were available throughout USDA. They also were interviewed by students about their job, explaining job responsibilities and how they came to work in their career field.

Every summer Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian college students from across the nation come to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) as participants in the program Washington Internships for Native Students (WINS); I am one of them.  For some of us, interning at APHIS is the first time we have ever lived off our tribal lands.  For others, coming to Washington, D.C. is but another experience living in a big city.  All of us, however, are linked in some way to the tribal communities we represent: the Omaha, Chippewa, Mohawk, Lumbee, Quechan, Laguna and Isleta nations.

WINS interns contribute more than just our skills and time; we add our voices.  We speak as individuals from communities that are often underrepresented in government settings.  We come to APHIS from states such as California, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and New Mexico and carry with us the unique perspectives of peoples from distant lands. Our respective cultures and histories, stories and languages are irrevocably parts of who we are and contribute to the way we view the world.  WINS interns help bridge the gap between Washington’s governmental agencies and the people for whom they work.  In the “People’s Department,” this bridge is priceless.

On March 14-15, employees from the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) participated in the New Mexico State University (NMSU) Employment Extravaganza in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Thanks to advertisements in the school newspaper and other local media outlets, the event had a great turnout.  The school’s career office passed out plenty of literature to make sure the students and their potential employers made solid connections.  AMS was one of nearly twenty organizations, spanning from local government offices and non-profits to large Fortune 500 companies like Walmart, to attend the school’s last career fair of the academic year.