Summer is HRWC’s busiest season. Interns, summer staff, and advanced volunteers make so much possible.
Lauren Burns worked with Ric Lawson on the water quality monitoring program in Washtenaw County. She is a graduate of Ohio State University, where she studied Fisheries and Wildlife Management. Lauren shares, “my work with HRWC allows me to immerse myself in a field that I am passionate about, while promoting environmental education and awareness in the community.”
Cameron Carpenter found his being a Summer Field Intern for HRWC a great experience. Not only did he learn more about field work and what it involves, but he got to meet a lot of really nice people. Cam notes, “It is an opportunity that will help me take a step forward as an environmental engineer.”
Michael Kaminski is a landscape architecture graduate student at University of Michigan’s (U-M) School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE). He spent his summer working with Rebecca Esselman and Ric Lawson on the Climate-Resilient Communities and Green Infrastructure programs. This included the production and dissemination of a toolkit for enhancing the climate resiliency of the watershed’s forest and tree resources, and the siting and design of green infrastructure projects for stormwater management in Washtenaw County.
Olivia Kincaid is a biochemistry major at Earlham College. She loves nature, in particular, water ecosystems. Olivia is thinking about a career in water conservation and environmental science, where she can utilize her interest in the environment. Olivia walked numerous creeks with a team of interns this summer identifying potential water resource problems.
Emma Maack is a graduate student in environmental policy at U-M’s SNRE and Ford School of Public Policy. She worked with Kris Olsson on the Portage Creek Watershed Plan Implementation project, researching local ordinances that affect water quality and coordinating field assessments for the Bioreserve program. Her internship was a great opportunity to work on local policy, understand watershed residents’ attitudes and concerns, and learn more about local ecology and the Huron River.
Josh Miller is a recent MS graduate in Environmental Policy and Planning from U-M. He worked this past year with Ric Lawson and others on the green infrastructure planning project in Washtenaw County. He is presently looking for work in Great Lakes or watershed policy and planning. He has “thoroughly enjoyed” his work with HRWC staff and is “grateful for the valuable experience.”
Kate Mlinarich is an Environmental Studies major at Schoolcraft College in Livonia.She worked with Jason Frenzel and Paul Steen on conducting stream walks to monitor the quality of different streams throughout Ann Arbor. She also helped develop a smart phone app to make gathering data in the field easier. Her career goal is to become a water quality /environmental technician and hopes to move to and work in Ann Arbor after graduation. She plans on volunteering at HRWC in the future as much as she can!
Becca Myers is a senior at the U-M studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a minor in Program in the Environment. She worked on a variety of projects at HRWC this summer, including research and improvement of HRWC’s Vertical Response email marketing system, as well as a field project that assessed the water quality of various streams of the Huron River.
Robert Olsen is a junior at U-M studying environmental sustainability. He helped HRWC by assessing water quality of various tributaries around Ann Arbor, and he researched river clean-up issues.
Derek Schrader organized and executed the summer recreation events this year. A recent graduate from Eastern Michigan University, Derek came to HRWC with a degree in Geotourism and Recreation & Park Management. He has been able to foster his passion for the environment and the relationship the community has with it through his work as the Recreation Coordinator for HRWC.
Rob Selesky, from Brighton, MI, is an Environmental Studies undergraduate student at Michigan State University. He is interested in natural resource conservation, land use, and sustainability. In his second summer at HRWC, he managed and coordinated the Water Quality Monitoring Program in Washtenaw and Wayne Counties, as well as the E. coli monitoring project in Honey and Mill Creeks.
Jhena Vigrass is an environmental studies and viola performance student at U-M. She worked with Pam Labadie on marketing and outreach projects that concentrated on raising awareness about the watershed and teaching residents how to help protect it. Jhena notes that this was a valuable experience for her and she had a great time working with all the HRWC staff.
Zach Zeneberg, is an Alumni of UM’s Program in the Environment and recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management at EMU. A professional bird trainer and environmental educator, Zach was excited to join HRWC as a management intern after researching the organization for a term paper, and has worked on a variety of projects including grant development, volunteer pool analysis, and HR policy evaluation. His personal mission is to find creative and effective methods of connecting people to nature for the benefit of both, and to that end he recently co-founded a nonprofit organization, Feathers Found, which will provide Animal-Assisted Therapy programs utilizing injured, non-releasable birds of prey (owls, hawks, etc).
Thank you, all!
HRWC offers scholastically-relevant internships as well as resume-building volunteer projects ranging from field biology to non-profit management.
