Campus Internships
UCSC Arboretum
Contact: Brett Hall, brett@ucsc.edu (831)212-4853
Topics in Botany and Horticulture Interns will participate in the ongoing care and development of the collections, gardens and programs in the UCSC Arboretum. The gardens and collections include California natives and the extensive southern hemisphere gardens and several other important botanical and horticultural collections. The internship work will involve planting, propagating, maintenance, grounds preparation, research on collections involving readings and short essay writings, biogeography and horticultural discussions, and optional field trips. For more information visit the Arboretum website.
Interactive Ecology
Listing also found in the Conservation tab.
Contact Person: Brett Hall brett@ucsc.edu (please put Interactive Ecology in the subject line), (831)212-4853
Interactive Ecology interns will work primarily within the California Native Plant Conservation Program in the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum. Physical activities will include building plant collections through seed germination, propagation, nursery work, planting, garden work and invasive weed control. We will take field trips to local wild areas to learn local plant communities and techniques involved in vegetation mapping, classification, habitat assessment and surveys. For more info, visit their website!
New Zealand Garden Internship
Listing also found in the Conservation tab.
Contact: Tom Sauceda, sauceda@ucsc.edu (831)502-2308
This internship provides first hand work experience with New Zealand native plants at the 9-acre New Zealand garden at the Arboretum. Interns will work in the garden planting, pruning, weeding, and installing basic drip irrigation systems. Interns will work with native New Zealand plants, some of which are threatened or rare in nature so there is a component of international plant conservation. Interns will keep a field journal of their work accomplished and garden observations including ecological plant-animal interactions, growth habit, flower structure, etc. Journal entries can be handwritten field notes, photographs, line drawings, etc.
Various Internships
Contact: Alex Jones, asjones@ucsc.edu (831)459-4971
The UCSC Campus Natural Reserve provides numerous opportunities for internships and student projects involving plants, animals, forest ecology, restoration and stewardship. These offerrings include: FERP, Stewardship assistant, Phenology Litter Traps, Tomography, Herpatology, or even an opportunity to create your own internship.
Farm Internship
Listing also found in Agroecology and Plants and Summer tabs.
Contact: Damian Parr, dmparr@ucsc.edu
CASFS is offering a lower division production internship focused on field-scale harvesting and orchard care, as well as general market garden-scale cover cropping, bed tillage, composting, and propagation. The internship will include a cohort of approximately 15 interns, working as a team. There is a possibility that interested students might be invited to continue interning in future quarters. We are most interested in students who can commit to two quarters of interning with us, during your time at UCSC, though the quarters interned do not need to be back-to-back. Each year, a number of paid student staff positions are available to graduates of our internship program.
Chadwick Garden Internship
Listing also found in the Agroecology and Plants tab.
Contact: Orin Martin, orin@ucsc.edu
The Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems is a research, education, and public service program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, dedicated to increasing ecological sustainability and social justice in the food and agriculture system. On the UCSC campus, the Center operates the 2-acre Alan Chadwick Garden and the 25-acre Farm. Both sites are managed using organic production methods and serve as research, teaching, and training facilities for students, staff, and faculty. The Farm-to-College project at UC Santa Cruz links the Center’s Farm on the UCSC campus with other local organic farms and with UCSC campus organizations to bring organic produce to the campus dining halls and restaurants, while bringing students to the Farm for sustainable food systems education.
The focus of this internship is learning ecological farming and gardening practices and principles. Participants work side by side with Center staff and apprentices in hands on activities, and engage with curriculum from the apprenticeship in ecological horticulture.
The World Cafe
Contact: commonground-studentboard-group@ucsc.edu
Food, tea and conversations that matter. Learn skills in conversational leadership, facilitation, cooking for groups, and tea culture. Hosting strategic conversations is a key skill set for environmental change. We are looking for volunteers and 2-unit interns to support our weekly World Cafe program on Mondays 5-7pm. This is an opportunity to learn the art of hosting conversations that matter, decide on topics and questions for conversation, prepare food and tea, and/or coordinate with our collaborative partners so that The World Cafe may be of benefit to their campaigns.
Demeter Seed Library
Contact: anchguti@ucsc.edu
The Demeter Seed Library is a student-led organization under CASFS that is dedicated to preserving and breeding locally adapted cultivars and open pollinated seed varieties in California’s Central Coast. We aim to demonstrate a society that is not reliant on large seed companies and multinational corporations that control the global food system. Through seed saving and seedswapping we hope to contribute towards a more sustainable food system. Interns will help with organizing inventory, conducting germination tests, tabling at events, and distributing seeds to the community.
Education for Sustainable Living Program
Listing also found in the Environmental Education tab.----ESLP is a collaborative and interdisciplinary effort to reshape the way we learn, effectively mentor students, and engage in projects that support the sustainable development of the University of California at Santa Cruz community. Join other ESLP organizers in the planning and designing our entireley student-designed Spring Monday Night Lecture series! As an intern, you will work within one of our three spheres: the Heart sphere (finding speakers for the lecture series), the Academic sphere (designing curriculum), or the Collaboration & Networking Sphere (outreach). Outside of your internship duties, you would be responsible for attending a minimum of two weekly meetings: your sphere meeting and our Core (full group) meeting, plus a quarterly retreat and an evaluations meeting. Typically, an organizer position is a year long commitment with the possibility of a stipend.Please check out eslp.enviroslug.org for more information, and reach out to eslp@ucsc.edu with any questions or to set up an interview.
Cultivating a Daily Revolution Internship
Listing also found in the Agroecology and Plants tab.
Contact: focan@ucsc.edu
This internship is a student-based & facilitated program designed to engage, provide experience, and educate participating students in various topics pertaining to communities on and around our campus. This internship will strive to foster a student community that is aware of the importance of gender, economic, and social justice issues within our food and commodity chains. The 2-unit internship will be hosted by the Friends of the Community AgroEcology Network (FoCAN), an on-campus student organization that promotes campus and communal involvement in food awareness, social justice, fair trade, agroecological approaches, and more.
Produce Pop-Up Internship
Listing also found in Agroecology and Plants tab.
Contact: Margaret Bishop mlbishop@ucsc.edu.
The Food Systems Working Group, anchored within the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) is looking for two driven individuals to assist with our academic year organic Produce Pop-Up, which takes place once a week at the Quarry Plaza. In efforts to improve issues of food access and healthy food purchasing on campus, the Produce Pop-Up provides a space for students to purchase affordable produce sourced from the CASFS Farm and local Santa Cruz farmers’ markets.
Food What?!
Also Under Agroecology & Plants and Environmental Justice
Contact Info: irene@foodwhat.org
"FoodWhat?!" is a youth empowerment and food justice organization operating independently on the CASFS farm at UCSC. We partner with youth throughout Santa Cruz County to grow, harvest, and eat fresh, organic produce.
The farm intern is responsible for supporting work relating to managing 2.5 acres of land designated for organic and sustainable food production on the CASFS Farm located at UCSC.
Forest Ecology Research Plot
Contact Person: Greg Gilbert ggilbert@ucsc.edu
Help with the expansion and 5-year re-census of the 6-ha Forest Ecology Research Plot (FERP) on the UCSC Campus Natural Reserve. The Ferp is a living laboratory designed to study forest dynamics and species interactions in the mixed-evergreen forest, and is a resource for teaching and student research in ecology, evolution, and environmental sciences at UCSC. For more information visit FERP Website.
Greenhouse Internship
Contact person: Jim Velzy, jhvelzy@ucsc.edu, (831)459-3485
This internship will involve work in the areas of plant propagation, greenhouse management and plant collection curating. The intern will become familiar with skills related to these areas of interest. He/she will work with the upkeep and maintenance of the plants in the UCSC Greenhouses instructional plant collection and the facility they occupy. A few projects include: updating the botanical labeling of plants in the collection, preparing plants for class use and setting up micro-environments for plants with specific needs. Tasks will be various and geared towards giving the intern well rounded botanical experience. For more information visit the web-site
Kresge Garden Internship
Also Under Agroecology & Plants
Contact: kresgegardeninternapp@gmail.
com The Kresge Garden co-op, a non-hierarchical organization run by queer femme student workers, is offering a 2-unit internship focused on hand-scale garden cultivation. The Kresge Garden is the oldest student run garden on campus as well as the only campus garden that is run by a co-op. Throughout the year the garden is filled with squashes, greens, flowers and more to fill the bellies and hearts of those who work, volunteer, and wander in the garden. The 2-unit internship that the Kresge Garden co-op offers is an introduction to the space and consensus based decision making as well as permacultural and french biointensive methods such as cover cropping, bed digging and soil cultivation, crop diversity, and composting. Interns are required to come to a three hour work day on Sundays as well as attend one other gardening session during the week in order to complete the six hours per week required for the internship. To apply for the internship e-mail kresgegardeninternapp@gmail.
com. Check out their website! 
KZSC Radio Internship
Contact: Keith Rozendal, rozendal@ucsc.edu
We will train you in all aspects related to broadcast and online audio reporting on local environmental issues. You will report on issues affecting the natural environment around the Monterey Bay for “This Just In from Outdoors,” KZSC’s weekly environmental news report broadcasting every Friday evening since 2014. We produce news and profiles of Monterey Bay environmentalists, scientists, natural wonders and natural hazards. We also produce audio nature walks! We cover scientific studies of our special natural surroundings, we also cover the food system and agriculture, local land use, and positive solutions to local environmental issues.
School Garden Internships
Listing also found in Environmental Education tab.
Contact: Amy, amy@lifelab.org 459-4035
We teach you to work with kids on farms and gardens! Sign up now for winter Life Lab Internships. Interns teach garden-based science and sustainable agriculture concepts to local school groups, preschool through 6th grade. Interns receive training in: Garden-based science education, working with children in an outdoor setting, organic gardening, environmental education, games, activities, and much more! 2 and 5 unit internships are available at the Life Lab Blooming Classroom, in our new beautiful site in Watsonville, as well as in the Life Lab Garden Classroom, on the UCSC Organic farm.
Training begins the first week of classes, on your chosen day.
Norris Center Internships
Listing also found in Environmental Education tab.
Contact Person: Chris Lay, cml@ucsc.edu (831)459-4763
The Norris Center welcomes students who are interested in natural history and want to get hands-on experience with a natural history collection in a meaningful way. 2-unit and 5-unit internships are available to students interested in creating their own projects or continuing long term projects. Past projects have included taxidermy, creation of exhibits, cataloging various collections, creating online natural history resources, teaching classes, leading hikes for campus groups, and writing natural history based books/curriculum. We have a diverse collection including an herbarium, and collections of birds, herps, fish, skulls, mammals, insects, etc. at your disposal to work with. Successful interns will have an interest in natural history and enthusiasm for learning.
Norris Center Taxidermy Internship
Contact: Alex Krohn, arkrohn@ucsc.edu (831) 459-4763
The taxidermy intern will be crucial in helping add to, and maintain, our current collections. The intern will be trained in how to skin, dry, document and properly preserve bird, and possibly mammal, specimens over the course of the quarter. According to a detailed protocol, the intern will work to create scientific specimens from previously collected animals to add to the museum’s collections.
Agroecology Research Intern
Listing also found in Research tab.
Contact: Carol Shennan, cshennan@ucsc.edu
The Shennan Lab is base at the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz We work closely with teh Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS). In the Shennan Lab research group, we study agricultural sustainability using participatory approaches in high input, capital-intensive vegetable/strawberry production in California. Sustainability issues in California include reliance on controversial toxic soil fumigants and issues releated to inefficient and overuse of inputs that result in on-point source pollution. Our work targets the development of alternatives to soil fumigants for soil-borne disease management, strategies for improved nutrients use and disease suppression in high-intensity organic strawberry/vegetable rotation systems and the potential for landscape diversification to enhance biological control of arthropod pests. Under supervision, interns will learn and experience scientifitic methods and research processes by working along with other undergraduate students for ongoing research projects.
For more information, visit our website
Program in Community & Agroecology
Listing also found in the Agroecology and Plants tab.
Contact: Damian Parr at dmparr@ucsc.edu.
The Program in Community and Agroecology (PICA) is a educational and residential program focused on experiential learning, sustainability and food systems. All UCSC students are welcome to participate in the garden workdays and workshops offered. PICA residents have the opportunity to grow their own food together, share meals together, and explore ways to live more sustainably. PICA is located at the entrance to the Village at the UCSC campus, right across from the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS).
Puma Project
RCC Garden Internship
Listing also found in the Agroecology and Plants tab.
Contact: c8garden@ucsc.edu
The Rachel Carson College Garden, a program within the Food Systems Working Group, provides 2 and 5 unit internship opportunities centered around basic garden care and stewardship--from seed to fruit. This internship will also focus on the intersections of society, green spaces and food justice through engaging with CRSN 90 and other hands on experience. Interested students will need to complete a casual interview before participating. Looking for students to intern for 2 quarters to develop experience with multiple seasons. Paid student staff positions will be available for students who previously committed to 2 quarters at the garden.
Site Stewardship
Contact: Bill Reid, billreid@ucsc.edu, (831)459-4680
The Site Stewardship Program organizes a team of interns and volunteers to take on ecological restoration and guardianship for sensitive natural areas within the UCSC campus. The program seeks to alleviate the impact that university growth is having on the landscape of the campus. The result of past natural resource extraction and university build-out has caused habitat destruction, invasion of non-native species, and soil erosion. Please visit their website for more information!
SMURF
Listing also found in Conservation tab.
Contact: Chris Law, cjlaw@ucsc.edu
The SMURF program is a collaboration between graduate students, the Natural History Museum, and the UC Natural Reserve System that monitors long-term small mammal population dynamics in the UCSC Natural Reserves. SMURF interns trap small mammals every quarter and use the data to examine environmental and ecological questions. We offer 2-unit and 5-unit internship. All first-time interns must take the 2-unit course, which is an introduction to small mammal surveying and handling, data entry and management, and project organization. After completing the 2-unit course, interns can advance to the 5-unit course for the following quarter. The 5-unit course focuses on designing and conducting a research project, data analysis, scientific writing, and public speaking in addition to the further development of field skills.Requirements for all interns:• Capable of working outdoors during hot or cold weather• Comfortable handling rodents• Willingness to be exposed to poison oak and ticks• Capable of lifting and carrying ~20lbs of weight• Excellent communication and team work skills• Must be available to attend all trapping sessions on 2 or 3 weekends (dates TBD)Stevenson Garden Internship
Listing also found in the Agroecology and Plants tab.
Contact: Blake Redding, bredding@ucsc.edu, (831)459-2730
The Stevenson Garden aims to create a safe space for all people to explore, grow, and learn as well as to educate our community about the role food systems play into sustainability, food justice, and nutrition.
The role of the intern will have two parts: 1. to assist the garden crew in general maintenance of the garden on a weekly basis: attend weekly workday hours, do independent garden shifts. 2. to independently facilitate a garden project that a) enhances the garden and b) educates community members on social justice and sustainability concepts; e.g. plant a strawberry bed & do a workshop on environmental justice issues in the strawberry industry.
UCSC Storm Water Management Program
Contact: Storm Water Manager cleanwater@ucsc.edu; (831)459-4520
Any students interested in environmental issues and would like to get involved on campus are encouraged to apply! Help UCSC manage the quality of campus storm water! Looking for: Writers, artists, web gurus, marketing specialists, photographers, students interested in environmental issues, & people able to network easily to work on storm water issues to enhance the overall campus environment!
Please visit their website for more information.
Fiscal Position
Contact:Liane Bauer, sec-group@ucsc.edu
The Student Environmental Center (SEC) is a student-run, student lead activist organization on campus dedicated to institutionalizing sustainability and environmental justice here at UCSC through projects and events that educate and empower students. Interning and working with the SEC is an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on skills like leadership, facilitation, project planning, critical thinking, etc., which employers will be looking for after graduation. Interns will also be able to create meaningful and lasting change on campus all while learning outside of the lecture hall and earning college credits! Expected duties for the fiscal interns include keeping track of all financial transactions, helping others navigate the fiscal suystem of UCSC, and ensuring funds are accessible for events.Blueprint Organizer
Contact: Liane Bauer, sec-group@ucsc.edu
Expected duties of the Blueprint Organizer include coordinating events and projects, tracking finances for the blueprint budget, and being an advocate for environmental justice.
Personnel Position
Contact: Liane Bauer, sec-group@ucsc.edu
Expected duties of the personnel intern include handling logistics such as collecting documentation of time sheets and goals from students, sheduling meetings for large group discussions, evaluating peers and keeping track of deadlines, sending out reminders of peers for documents, communication with sister orgs such as ESLP and CSC, and planning quarterly retreats.
Media and Outreach Intern
Contact: Liane Bauer, sec-group@ucsc.edu
Expected duties of the media and outreach intern include advertising events and projects, working with outisde organizations to build coalition, and educating and empowering students through social media.
Sustainability Internship
Contact: Shauna Casey, scasey@ucsc.edu
The Sustainability Office is looking for talented individuals with a passion for people and the environment to join one of our teams: Green Office Certification program, Carbon Neutrality Fellows, Zero Waste Team or Education & Outreach Teams. If you are interested in gaining professional experience in a fun and rewarding environment, send your resume and a cover letter of interest to scasey@ucsc.edu. Opportunities are available for paid, unpaid and academic credit. We actively recruit interns in Spring quarter for the following school and generally hire only students who are able to make a year-long commitment to their internship, but don't that stop you from getting in touch! We occasionally have additional opportunities. To view our current job openings visit our website!
Paid Sustainability Internships
Contact: Shauna Casey, scasey@ucsc.edu
Note: Jobs will be updated on the ER System asap. Please check back for active links.
Jobs offered through the UCSC Sustainability Office including program coordinator, sustainability project manager, and graphic designer/website student assistant.
Apply Now!
Younger Lagoon Reserve Habitat Resoration Field Crew
Listing also found in Conservation tab.
Contact: Vaughan Williams vawillia@ucsc.edu (831)502-7250
The UCSC Natural Reserves Office manages five natural reserves that are set aside for teaching, research and public education. We sponsor interns every quarter, including summer, to work at Younger Lagoon Reserve on our Habitat Restoration Field Crew. Student interns work outside among herons, hawks, and coyotes and pull invasive weeds, collect native seeds, propagate and plant native seedlings, maintain existing restoration sites, cut back trails, and conduct ecological monitoring throughout the year.
Arboretum
Campus Natural Reserve
CASFS
Chadwick Garden
Common Ground Center
Demeter Seed Library
Education for Sustainable Living Program
FoCAN
Food Systems Working Group
Food What?!
Forest Ecology Research Plot (FERP)
Greenhouse
Kresge Garden
KZSC Radio
Life Lab
Norris Center for Natural History
Organic Farm Research
PICA
Puma Project
Rachel Carson College Garden
Site Stewardship
Small Mammal Undergraduate Research in Forests
Stevenson Garden
Storm Water Management Program
Student Environmental Center
UCSC Sustainability Office Internship
Younger Lagoon Reserve Habitat Resoration Field Crew
