ENVS 485 Environmental Internship
Jane L. Wolfson, Ph.D.
Director, Environmental Science and Studies Programs
Internship Coordinator
Office, Administration 213
jwolfson@towson.edu
410-704-4920
Course description: The internship experience in the Environmental Science and Studies (ESS)
program is both an academic and a professional experience. Students work a minimum of 120 hours
as a member of the environmental community and write an analytical paper that integrates their
professional experience with their knowledge [both what they know at the beginning of their
internships and what they learn through additional research] of the environmental field. The
curriculum of the ESS program is within the disciplines that underlie current environmental issues,
problems, and programs. Writing the analytical paper will help each student integrate these various
disciplines. Students do not receive credit for the course until their analytical paper has been accepted
(submitted and accepted are not the same). Details on the requirements for the analytical paper are
presented later.
Course prerequisites: Students must have junior or senior standing, have declared ESS as their
major, have completed most of the program's core curriculum, and have a minimum GPA of 2.5. All
students must have found and been accepted for an appropriate internship opportunity prior to
registering for the course. In addition, the internship advisor, presently Dr. Jane Wolfson, Director of
ESS, needs to approve their internship. Students can only register for this course by obtaining a
permission to do so from Dr. Wolfson.
Course requirements: To receive credit for this course students must 1) complete a minimum of 120
hours of work. 2) submit an analytical paper that is considered acceptable and 3) have their supervisor
submit evaluation forms to Dr. Wolfson. The work completed for the internship must be considered
satisfactory by the supervisor and the evaluation forms must be received before credit for the
internship is received.
Obtaining an internship: Students are responsible for locating an acceptable internship although
efforts are made to assist student identify potential opportunities. Information about potential
organizations for internships can be found at http://wwwnew.towson.edu/ess/internships_jobs.asp or at the
on-campus career office. Students are not assigned internships and should approach their potential
supervisor as if they were applying for a paid position. It is the student's responsibility to find and be
accepted for an appropriate opportunity. An acceptable opportunity is one that involves activity
appropriate for a beginning environmental professional (internships that involve primarily clerical
work, reception, data entry, etc. are usually not acceptable). Initial discussions with the potential
supervisor should help the student determine the type of work experience they will have and the types
of professional projects in which they will be involved. Once the student and their potential supervisor
agree to the internship, the student needs to obtain the approval of the internship coordinator.
Obtaining approval from the Internship Coordinator: To obtain approval, each student needs to
submit to the Internship Coordinator a brief description of their internship which includes following:
 a description and/or identification of the organization for which they will be working,
 information about they organization they working for, i.e., what they do
 the name, position, title and phone number of their immediate supervisor,
revised
July 2011


a description of the projects or activities they expect they will be involved in during their 120
hours of professional work,
a time line for submission of an annotated outline for the analytical paper.
Special Note: Once the Internship Coordinator finds the proposed experience acceptable and has a
conversation with the internship supervisor which confirms that the experience is academically and
professionally valuable for the student, the student will be allowed to register for the class. Receiving
a special permit and accepting the internship offer constitutes an agreement by the student to complete
the responsibilities of the internship. If for some unforeseen reason a student finds that s/he cannot
complete the internship, it is critical s/he inform the internship coordinator immediately. The
coordinator will then contact the supervisor. This will help insure that individual difficulties do not
end up damaging another student's potential placement with the same supervisor or in the same
organization.
Contact with the Internship Coordinator: Since there are no formal class meetings, the burden of
communicating with the instructor is on the student. You are required to meet with the coordinator at
least twice during the semester or, if your internship is at a time when you are not on campus (i.e.,
summer), you need to be in phone or e-mail contact at least once a month. During these discussions
you are expected to describe what you are doing, how your paper is developing, what you have been
learning about the organization, the type of work they are involved in and what you are learning about
yourself in terms of your interests and abilities.
Goals Statement: Within three weeks of beginning their internship work experience, students should
prepare, present and discuss with their supervisor (and submit to the internship coordinator) a clear
statement of his/her goals for the internship. The statement should include experiential goals,
enhanced knowledge base and specific skills (i.e., programming, GIS, facilitating community
meetings, measuring X or Y) and anything else appropriate to your internship. .
The analytical paper: The analytical paper is the part of the experience that makes this a capstone
course for your academic program. You want to think of this paper as your opportunity to
demonstrate to the work your ability to find, use and integrate new information with your previous
knowledge, write well, think critically and creatively,. The final analytical paper should run
approximately 15 pages. The final paper has to be professionally written with appropriate content for
you to pass this course (i.e., to make your paper acceptable). Citation methods should be consistent
with the posted style sheet writing style.
The audience you are addressing in your paper should be assumed to be intelligent, broadly trained
individuals like yourself who do not have the specific experience/training that you received during
your internship. You can assume they have taken the core courses for the ESS major but you cannot
assume they have the specialized training one would obtain in the specific tracks or that you received
during your internship. They also lack your work experience; it is incumbent on you to provide the
information your reader needs to understand what it is you want to present to them. Revisions will be
required until a well-written (appropriately professional) document is submitted. Students are
welcome to submit drafts and outlines or obtain assistance from the writing laboratory on campus.
The internship coordinator will also provide feedback on drafts submitted.
The goal of the paper is to have you place the work/program/project of your internship into the
'broader context" of environmental science and studies. It is NOT a description of what you did at
work. One might define “broader context” as the problems that the organization, agency, project, etc.
revised
July 2011
is addressing, the reasons that those problems exist, why it is important that the problems be
addressed, etc. Whereas the work you actually do is at the ‘5 foot level’ the context requires a student
to look at their work/the organization from the ‘30,000 foot level.’
Here are some examples of what the "broader context" could be for theoretical internships. Every
internship has a variety of potential “broad context” issues and students are encouraged to discuss
various ideas with Dr. Wolfson before they develop their outline for their analytical paper.
The broader context of an internship in environmental conservation could be 1) an assessment of
the ethics, economics and genetics of captive breeding programs, or 2) a discussion of medicinal
plants, development of pharmaceuticals, and "ownership" of the pharmaceutical patents developed
from resources obtained in a "third world country," or 3) an analysis of the economic development
programs that trade debt for land conservation in developing countries.
The broader context for a project in chemical analysis of drinking water could include 1) a
comparison of standards among different jurisdictions (states, nations, communities, etc.), the
scientific basis of the standards and their potential impact on citizen health, or 2) the impact
(ecological, hydrological, chemical) of different types of development or land uses on water
quality and the efficacy of regulations that attempt to minimize these impacts.
The broader context for a project in stream restoration could be whether the techniques used in
stream restoration can return the restored stream to its pre-degraded condition in terms of its
ecological, hydrological function and how we might know whether the restoration “worked.” A
project on stream monitoring could look at the underlying assumptions of the assessment metrics,
the value of assessing streams facing different challenges, or the policy implications of various
scores.
In each of these examples, the specific internship is related to courses in the curriculum and big
environmental issues, i.e., placed into a broader context. Thinking about the ‘broader context” forces
each student to look "critically" at the project and consider such things as "does it work?" in terms of the
declared goals of the organization, "is it worth it?" in terms of the economic constraints and difficult
choices agencies must make, "does it matter?" in terms of the ecological/hydrological/chemical function
of the area before and after intervention or "what is ethically right" in terms resources belonging to
others. The goal is not to find fault (critically does not mean finding errors), but to see how this activity
"fits" overall. In this paper the writer is expected to discuss what s/he has learned through their research
on their topic (reading of the primary literature), but, in addition, express thoughts developed as a result
of the research and personal experiences (both internship and academic). The paper is not a summary of
"what is known" about a topic, it is more of a "what is known and what I think about this in light of
everything I have learned." The examples presented above are not exclusive. Students are urged to
discuss their outlines with the internship supervisor before submitting their drafts. It is important that
students understand the goals of the internship.
Possible organization of the paper: Students are free to develop their papers as they see fit but the two
general models of organization might be helpful. Each section would be well developed as is appropriate
to the topics, the internship, and the student’s activities.
Model 1:
revised
July 2011
1. what is the problem/issue (prairie restoration, stormwater runoff, nutrient pollution, land use)
2. how does the organization I worked for address the problem (or try to develop solutions).
3. what do I think about the way they address the problem (this is where your critical analysis
comes in).
Model 2:
1. what is the organization (its mission, its mandate, who funds it, how does it fit in the big
picture, i.e., addressing, solving, monitoring, environmental problems)
2. how did my work in/for/with this organization fit into their mandate, mission, the big picture,
etc.
3. what do I think about how this organization and the work I did addresses the problem (this is
where your critical analysis comes in).
Grading Policy: The internship course is graded S/U but a grade of S must be received for a student
to graduate with the ESS major. Comments received by your supervisor about your extraordinary
performance cannot be translated into a grade but will have a major effect upon letters of
recommendation for a professional position or for future graduate studies.
An acceptable paper will have
 An effective title that reflects the content
 A well developed [with appropriate and extensive citation] discussion/development of the
context so that a reader understands the broader issues
 A section in which the author evaluates what is currently happening and makes concrete
suggestions [as appropriate] for ways in which the environmental goals might be met more
effectively
 Will be grammatically correct and well written so that the information being presented is easy
to understand and an engaged reader doesn’t have the fight the language to understand the
ideas being expressed
 A detailed and properly organized list of references.
Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in a grade of U. The Towson University
Code of Conduct prohibits “all forms of dishonesty, including cheating (and) plagiarism.” Plagiarism
is the unacknowledged use of another's words or ideas. The most flagrant type of plagiarism is turning
in someone else's work as one's own. But plagiarism also includes borrowing another author's ideas,
as part of an argument you are developing in your written work, without documenting the source
properly. The material presented in the internship paper should be well documented or clearly that of
the author. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course. Students failing this course will not
be permitted to graduate from this program.
Evaluation by your site supervisor: Attached to this document are interim and final evaluation
forms. Since students complete their internships at different times, it is your responsibility to give
these forms to your internship supervisor and remind them when these should be completed and faxed
or mailed to Towson. The interim evaluation should be completed when you have finished about 40
hours of work. The final evaluation should be sent after you have completed your 120 hours.
revised
July 2011
Interim Intern Evaluation Form
Please fax (410-704-3959) or mail this form (Dr. Jane Wolfson, Environmental Science and Studies
Program, Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson, MD 21252) after your intern has completed
at least 40 hours of work. [DO NOT GIVE THIS FORM TO THE INTERN.]
Student:___________________________
This student has completed approximately __________hours as of this date ______________.
This student has discussed/not discussed their goals for their internship with me. [please circle one]
This student's overall performance has been:
____
excellent
____
good
____
fair
____
poor
Comments:
Signature:
Thank you for taking the time to complete this form
and for agreeing to work with this Towson student.
revised
July 2011
Student Intern Evaluation Form
Please Fax [410-704-3959] or mail to Dr. Jane Wolfson, Environmental Science and Studies Program,
Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson, MD 21252. [DO NOT GIVE THIS FORM TO THE INTERN]
Please rate __________________'s performance in this internship on the following skills using the
scale of 1 to 5 with a 5 indicating excellent performance, a 1 indicating very poor performance and
NA indicated for not applicable.
characteristic
attendance
punctuality
appropriate attire
attitude
interest
creativity
initiative
score
____
____
____
____
____
____
____
characteristic
innovation
verbal communication skills
written communication skills
listening skills
ability to learn new skills
basic knowledge of the field
professional growth during internship
score
____
____
____
____
____
____
____
How many hours has the student complete in their internship with you? _____hours.
How well did the student live up to your expectations?
____ did not meet expectations
____ met expectations
____ exceeded expectations
In what ways did the student not meet, meet or exceed your expectations?
Might this student have been better prepared for the work you asked her/him to do? In what ways?
Is there additional information you wish to share?
Signature:
Thank you again for working with this Towson University student!
revised
July 2011