Over the past summer, I worked as a Environmental Education Intern at the Howard County Conservancy located in Woodstock, Maryland. My supervisor was the camp director there, Kylie Weinel. I found this great opportunity on Careers4Terps. In my search, I said I was looking for a local summer internship related to topics about the environment. My best advice for looking for an internship would be to start as early as you can. Companies will be posting jobs as early as the summer and as late as the May before the summer. Make sure to also use your resources to the best of your ability. Use the school resources like Careers4Terps or the research database. You can also look at job posting websites and social media like Linkedin and google to find opportunities. Search as broad as you can but also search as detailed as you can, so you get to see a variety of job postings. Lastly, it does not hurt to apply for an internship or job even if it does not completely correlate to what you want to do because this is a no commitment application. I completed various types of tasks as an intern here. I practically worked as a kids focused summer camp counselor at an environmental education center. Our goal was to educate kids age 5-12 about the environment in hopes of sparking an interest in them. My main job was to help create lesson plans that correlated to that week’s theme and then go on to teach these lesson plans. We would also work to design larger programs intended to teach the campers about various, important topics about the environment. I also worked with Conservancy staff with any miscellaneous tasks needed to be done. Some examples of lessons we did with the kids would include hikes to the stream so they could learn about the importance of macroinvertebrates in the waterways as an indicator of water quality. We also would do bird walks and learn about the birds that surround the conservancy. Lastly another example of an activity would be collecting water from nearby water and observing the microorganisms. I learned about so many different science related topics throughout my internship that I did not have knowledge of before. For example, I have learned so much about broad topics about the environment in my classes here at the university but there are some smaller topics that are not necessarily taught in the curriculum. I learned so much about the flora and fauna that surrounds the Maryland area. I had very little knowledge on the different types of birds, the different types of insects, or the unique plants that grow here because I had little interest before then, but now I gained a new interest. I have also gained a lot of experience in areas not related to science. I finally understood the appreciation of education. This internship has made me realize that summer camps like these are so valuable. Kids do not get much knowledge on these types of environmental topics in a classroom setting. These summer camps are built to provide a unique education. The only way the newer generations can learn about valuing the environment is by giving them a head start on their knowledge. I have also improved so much with communication. As an Environmental Education intern, I had to constantly communicate with other counselors and instruct campers. My explaining and teaching skills have greatly improved throughout my time Working at the Howard County Conservancy has been such an eye opening experience. This is a unique opportunity that I do not see myself doing in the near future, but I have still gained knowledge. This has also made it more clear to me what I exactly want to do as my career. I knew for sure I wanted to be outdoors doing some sort of field work at times. I did not see my future being stuck in front of a computer desk. The internship has also helped me finalize that I still want to have environmental education in my life but not as my main job. I know I want to work in environmental consulting at an engineering company. Overall, I had a great time at the Howard County Conservancy. I met so many talented people and other interns with similar goals as me. I would recommend this opportunity to other SGC students looking for a practicum.