Finding an internship – general & valuable resources
Note: about this list of resources on finding an internship opportunity This list is not exhaustive, it is currently in development. If through the course of your research you find other useful websites and/or internship opportunities, we’d be grateful if you could alert us too, so we can add them here.
Some, or all, of these internship opportunities may qualify for BIOL/INES internship credit, however, they must be preapproved before you start the internship. So, if you secure an internship opportunity and wish to seek to earn academic credit for the experience, please contact the Launch Program (contacts below) in advance of you accepting the internship position to discuss further. Please also check out our Launch Internship Program for more details and the official application form to apply to have your internship opportunity approved as an academic credit bearing internship experience: https://www.marquette.edu/biology/undergraduate-internships.php
General job search sites for finding internship positions:
Handshake Career platform @ Marquette
Marquette’s Handshake job/career platform (If you do not have a Handshake account at Marquette – creating one should be one of your first steps to complete if you are searching for an internship or job!)
Indeed.com – general job posting site www.indeed.com.
Using “life sciences”, “environmental” in addition to “intern” can be useful in the search process
Biospace Life Sciences Careers
Biospace – Life Sciences Careers www.biospace.com
Jobs That Help, Milwaukee
Jobs That Help – a Milwaukee, nonprofit jobs and internship opportunity website. Great site to keep informed about local opportunities, especially with environmental and sustainability-focused community organizations.
American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (ASBMB)
American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)
Entomological Society of America
Natural Resources Job board at Texas A&M
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Biotech/Pharma companies and their internship programs (largely WI and IL focused):
Note: application deadlines for their formal summer internship programs are traditionally early to mid-fall semester:
Arm and Hammer Specialty Products Division Wisconsin, Waukesha, WI
Arm and Hammer offer paid internships to interested students to support and develop targeted microbial solutions for application in poultry, swine and dairy. Their internships are for regular semester (part-time) or summer months. Their work focuses on applying microbiological and molecular genetic techniques to isolate and characterize pathogenic bacteria from feed, environmental and intestinal samples from livestock production systems and developing probiotic products to promote intestinal health and improved performance. If interested, please contact Amy Wescott at 414-581-6310 or amy.wescott@churchdwight.com
Environment, conservation, museum & education focused internship sites
Dept. of Natural Resources
The Dept. of Natural Resources in each state usually hosts a broad summer internship program. For details on Wisconsin’s DNR internship program, please click here
Discovery World Museum, Milwaukee
The Discovery World regularly offers summer and semester internship opportunities in the areas of science education, communications and fundraising. For more information check out Discovery World’s website
Environmental Law and Policy Center (EPLC)
Based in Chicago-IL, Madison-WI, and Des Moines-IA, the EPC offers a variety of internship opportunities.
For more details on ELPC careers and Job Board for Midwest and Summer internship programs https://elpc.org/about/careers/
Harbor District & Milwaukee Public Museum Field Survey internship program
This field survey, habitat restoration internship program is carried out in partnership with Harbor District, Inc (HDI) and the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). For more details and application information please contact Dr. Jen Zaspel, VP & Academic Dean, Milwaukee Public Museum (zaspelj@mpm.edu).
Marquette’s Les Aspin Center for Government in Washington D.C.
Marquette’s Les Aspin Center in Washington D.C. offers specialized internship opportunities for eligible students in any major at any university. Note this is a fabulous program and not limited to POSC majors. It is highly appropriate for BIOL/INES majors and offers wonderful, valuable opportunities to intern in Washington, DC, e.g., at the FDA, NIH, EPA etc. Contact Dr. Karen Hoffmann in the Dept. of Political Sciences/Les Aspin Center (karen.hoffman@marquette.edu) for more details, please visit the Les Aspin Center’s website.
Marquette’s Kleczka Fellowship Program – Milwaukee
The Kleczka Program offers an opportunity to participate in local public leadership and public affairs. Just like the successful academic model of the Les Aspin Center in Washington, D.C., students receive hands-on work experience at the city, county, or state level coupled with classroom instruction. Coordinated on Marquette's campus in Milwaukee, the Kleczka Program places students in local legislative offices and organizations. The internship is open to any eligible college student studying any major. For questions or more information about the Kleczka Internship Program, please contact Dr. Karen Hoffman at karen.hoffman@marquette.edu and check out the Kleczka Fellowship Program website.
Marquette University’s Sustainability Internship Program
The Sustainability Internship Program is a student worker program under Marquette University’s Sustainability & Energy Management Coordinator, Chelsea Malacara. Sustainability Interns work to operationalize campus sustainability efforts through organizing events, developing creative programming and initiatives, conducting peer-to-peer outreach, collecting & analyzing data, and conducting research. For more details, please contact Chelsea.malacara@marquette.edu
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD)
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) is committed to growing the next generation of water workforce through a variety of career exploration and training opportunities. The host several diverse summer internship programs each year, open to biological and environmental majors and offering student interns a breadth of professional development opportunities in the field of environmental sciences and sustainability. For more details, please see MMSD’s career webpage
The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) has frequently been a source of great BIOL/INES internship opportunities. Please check out MPM’s website and/or contact MPM at internships@mpm.edu
Milwaukee Zoological Society
Home to a number of semester and summer internship and volunteer opportunities, check out the MKE Zoo’s career webpage
Mosaics in Science – is a science related, nation-wide internship program coordinated by the National Park Service and Environment for the Americas https://www.mosaicsinscience.org
Student Conservation Association
The Student Conservation Association offers a wide variety of environmental, field biology, sustainability, and conservation opportunities throughout the USA. These are open to current undergraduates and recent graduates. Note many of these opportunities are approximately 6-12 months positions, but there are often positions advertised for the summer months too. https://www.thesca.org/ and their job opportunities postings: https://www.thesca.org/serve/positions
The Urban Ecology Center, Milwaukee takes an innovative approach to sustainability, neighborhood-based urban environmental education, and community science. For more details of their semester and summer internship opportunities, with application deadlines traditionally in January & February, please visit their website.
Veolia, North America – Waste & Wastewater Treatment Services
Veolia is a large environmental employer in SE Wisconsin and nationwide. They offer summer internship opportunities and also many employment opportunities for environmentally focused young graduates. Check out their career webpage for more information.
Medical, research & regulatory focused internships sites
The Genetic Counseling Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) no longer offer a formal genetic counseling internship program, but now offers a Genetic Counseling Career Research & Exploration Workshop (GC-CREW)/ For more details, please visit their website. Please note that this workshop will not qualify for internship academic credit through the Launch internship program, as it will not meet the required 140 hr work minimum. It is however listed here because many students are seeking this type of important career preparedness experience.
PURE Internship program @ the Medical College of Wisconsin
The Program for Undergraduate Research (PURE) offered by the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Graduate School is a non-paid, experiential-based internship program for undergraduate students who are currently enrolled in a degree-seeking program at an accredited college/university. Applicants to PURE who are chosen for the program will be placed with a MCW faculty mentor who will provide varying levels of exposure to basic, translational and population research. For more detail visit the MCW PURE website.
Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office - Forensics Lab internship
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office has recruited BIOL students in the past as lab interns. These positions may be unpaid but can provide a wealth of professional lab experience to their interns. Please contact Sara Schreiber (Sara.Schreiber@milwaukeecountywi.gov) for more information.
Milwaukee City Health Department
Check out their website here. To apply: Send the Student Placement Application and your resume to MHDtrain@milwaukee.gov. You will receive a confirmation email within one week of submission confirming that your application has been received. The email will also notify you of next steps. NOTE: Student placements are filled on a rolling basis. It is recommended that you submit your application as soon as possible for full consideration.
Wisconsin Crime Laboratory Bureau
Crime Lab Internships: The Wisconsin Crime Laboratory Bureau offers a limited number of internships each year, and internships are only offered when a specific project has been identified that furthers the mission of the laboratories. The Crime Laboratory in Milwaukee provides analyses in Controlled Substance, Toxicology, DNA/Serology, Firearms/Toolmarks, Identification, Forensic Imaging, and Trace Chemistry. https://www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/wscl/crime-lab-internships
