The Intergovernmental Internship Cooperative is a Southern Utah University program that connects T-Birds to jobs in the National Parks or on other public lands. March is the month where the majority of summer internships start pouring in, according to Kevin Koontz.
Koontz is the outdoor academic coordinator for the Outdoor Pathways program, which oversees the IIC, the Mountain Center, the Community Garden and sustainability efforts on campus. He has been involved in the program since 2014 and hopes to connect all interested students with experiential internships they will love.
“Most of the time, students will see, ‘Oh, these are internships with public land agencies [or the] park service,’ and they automatically eliminate themselves, saying, ‘Oh, I don’t qualify for that’ or ‘I don’t count for that,’” Koontz said. “I want to get rid of that stigma.”
Many interns go on to start a career with the agency they worked for through the IIC. “We’ve learned that something like 80% of [former IIC interns] are still working in the field of public lands in some matter,” Koontz said.
The internship opportunities exist in public land offices across the Western United States. While many of the IIC’s partners are located in Utah, there are available positions in Arizona, Nevada and across the United States with the Geographic Information System Program, where interns help with the mapping, visualization and research of the National Parks.
Jobs on public land are not only for students interested in working outdoors, although many trail work positions are available. The IIC has positions ranging from trail work and maintenance to graphic design and visitor services.
One common position that is often listed is for interpretation, which Koontz said can often confuse students who assume that they would need to know a second language to apply. “In this field, interpretation is really kind of the educational side. You’re not interpreting one language to another, you’re interpreting the landscape or the history for visitors,” Koontz said.
There are also more specialized internships for science students looking for a foot in the door of their chosen interest as paleontologists, archaeologists or wildlife biologists. “Regardless of your major, these internships are for you,” Koontz said.
Koontz wants to encourage students to take advantage of this program, especially due to SUU’s proximity to so much public land. “The University of the Parks brand in general is just, you know, we live in an area where some people may say, ‘Oh, that’s the middle of nowhere,’” Koontz said. “We think, ‘No, we’re in the middle of everywhere.’”
SUU students are eligible to apply for IIC positions now and for up to two years after graduation. To view available positions, visit their website.
Author: Lily Brunson
Photo courtesy of the IIC website
Editor: Lily Brunson
outdoors@suunews.net
Edited for clarity: This post was updated on March 14 to correct an error in the second paragraph, which previously said that Koonts oversaw the IIC program.