Environmental Internship Host Organizations
To submit a project, please fill out this form by December 4, 2024.
Apply to become a 2025 summer intern host!
Each year, Michigan Sea Grant runs an environmental internship program that coordinates and funds undergraduate students to work with private businesses, local governments, state and federal agencies, and environmental non-profit organizations to plan or implement Great Lakes stewardship and research projects. Students can work with academic faculty if their project also involves strong partnership with an organization outside the school. Students enrolled at any accredited community college, college, or university in Michigan are eligible to apply.
Our internship program is designed to work in two ways:
- Interns apply to us with a project idea and a host organization already on board -OR-
- Host organizations come to us with a project idea, and we help find student applicants interested in their project.
Examples of host organizations include:
- State agencies, such as Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) or Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE)
- Campus sustainability offices
- Parks and recreation departments
- Watershed or river protection groups
- Tribal natural resources departments
- Museums, libraries, nature centers
Previous interns have worked on projects like:
- Partnering with a southeast Michigan watershed group to run and improve their hands-on stream sampling program for K-12 students.
- Mapping tree canopy cover in an urban forest in Detroit.
- Helping Michigan DNR stock and study juvenile lake whitefish in northern Michigan lakes and rivers.
- Setting up experiments to track the spread of invasive algae.
- Engaging visitors at a fish hatchery and crafting newsletters and program documents.
Submitting projects and hosting interns
Internships run from May to August. MISG provides each selected intern with a $9,000 stipend, up to $1,000 in travel support, and regular professional development opportunities through the summer. The host organization is responsible for supervising the intern and providing a 50% match (which can be in-kind contributions such as staff time, office space, etc).
From November 4-December 4, 2024, we invite potential host organizations to submit ideas for projects that could engage these bright students in environmental stewardship work for Summer 2025. We will collect the proposed projects and include them in our application guidance documents, which will be available to student applicants in early December. Potential interns interested in selecting your project will contact you to collaborate on their application materials before the January 31, 2025 application deadline.
We anticipate funding 5 students in 2025, so not all host-submitted projects included in the guidance documents will be filled by an intern in 2025. As needed, we will contact potential hosts to discuss or refine submitted projects before including them in the guidance documents.
Project submission form and contact
To submit a project, please fill out this form by December 4.
If you have questions, please email us at msgfellowships@umich.edu.
If helpful, here’s a checklist to help guide you through the project submission process.
2025 internship timeline
- November 4-December 4, 2024: Host organizations submit ideas for intern projects; MISG incorporates the projects into our application documents for interested students.
- December 9, 2024- January 31, 2025: Application window for students is open.
- February: MISG coordinates a peer-reviewed process to select the 2025 interns.
- March: Selection decisions are announced.
- May: MISG hosts a kick-off meeting with interns, and their projects begin.
- August: Intern projects conclude; MISG hosts a closing symposium for interns to present about their projects.
- September: Intern final reports and host organization match confirmation letters are due.