Prairie Partner Intern 2010
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 2011
Current Position: Wildlife Biologist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (Friendship, WI)
Favorite memory of the program: Having the opportunity to work on numerous prairies and different habitats and get a hands-on perspective of what invasives control work entails! I also had a great team of other crew members that year and we had a good time working together daily. Also, having ice cream at lunch at Goose Pond was always nice. Thanks Mark and Sue!
Impact of the program on your academic and/or career path: The internship certainly gave me an edge when I had to compete and interview for my first DNR position as an LTE wildlife technician. Part of the interview was a hands-on practical exam which included identifying several invasive and native plants which I had learned during my internship.
How you used what you learned in the internship in future employment: I look at my summer as an intern as the building blocks of my ecological background for dealing with Wisconsin plant and animal communities. I constantly deal with invasive species as part of my job when managing state-owned lands. Having the background and knowledge to identify and treat them appropriately is a necessity for doing this work. Being able to recognize native plants also helps to categorize certain habitat types and what these areas may have looked like pre-settlement.
