Applications Available for Acadian Internship Summer Program Students, Field Sponsors
Applications Available for Acadian Internship summer program students, field sponsors
Contact: Dr. Sarah Nelson (207) 581-3454 or acadianinternship@gmail.com
ORONO – The inaugural Acadian Internship Program is now accepting applications from students and conservation organizations for summer 2011. This innovative program combines formal coursework, offered for credit through the University of Maine’s Summer University, with a four-week internship program to be hosted across the Downeast Maine and southwest New Brunswick region.
Students may be considered for the internship program, and conservation entities can propose to sponsor interns, by completing brief applications available online at acadianinternship.wordpress.com.
The application deadline is March 23.
Coursework begins July 11 at the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) in Acadia National Park. Co-instructors Dr. Rob Lilieholm of the University of Maine School of Forest Resources and Dr. Megan Gahl of the University of New Brunswick will provide an intensive week of coursework in conservation theory, tools, and methods. A diverse set of faculty, local experts, and guest lecturers – in addition to field trips and case studies within the region – will ground students in the resources and challenges within the study area. For the next four weeks, interns will work with a variety of field sponsors, gaining meaningful, hands-on internship experience. Finally, interns will reconvene at SERC to place what they learned in their field experience within the greater context of large landscape-scale conservation. The wrap-up will include formal project presentations open to all stakeholders.
“The Acadian Internship will bring together students from North America and beyond to explore an important emerging concept in conservation,” says James N. Levitt, Director of the Program on Conservation Innovation at the Harvard Forest, Harvard University and Chair of the Executive Committee of QLF/Atlantic Center for the Environment. “The idea is that we can achieve durable conservation objectives on a regional basis by encouraging collaboration across the boundaries of national and state lands, privately-owned parcels, and properties owned by non-profit organizations. Through instruction at the Schoodic Education and Research Center and through field experiences across Downeast Maine and western New Brunswick, these students will help to blaze a new path in the stewardship of the working and preserved landscapes that are essential to the remarkable quality of life this historic region.”
The Acadian Internship Program is sponsored by the Quebec Labrador Foundation, Schoodic Education and Research Center, the Frenchman Bay Conservancy, several universities including the University of Maine and Unity College, and in partnership with Acadia National Park.
The program is currently seeking partner organizations interested in sponsoring a team of interns to complete a focused project. Partnership applications will be reviewed starting April 1.
Potential partners should contact Dr. Sarah Nelson at the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research by phone (207-581-3454) or email (acadianinternship@gmail.com). Information can be mailed to Dr. Sarah Nelson, Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research, 102 Norman Smith Hall, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, 04469.