California State University / Environmental Protection Agency Internship Program (for-credit)

The California State University (CSU) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 (EPA) to establish cooperation between the two entities, including encouraging students to participate in the environmental fields of study, and to help EPA attract a workforce as diverse as the public it serves. Implementation of the MOU activities will promote equal opportunity in EPA’s workforce, contribute to CSU’s capacity to provide high quality education particularly in various environmentally related fields of study, and encourage the participation of CSU students and faculty in EPA’s programs. CSU’s Water Resources and Policy Initiatives (WRPI) is administering the Program.

This Internship Program offers CSU student volunteer learning opportunities at the EPA in a wide range of discipline areas. It provides students the opportunity to strengthen their leadership, technical, research, communication, networking, and other job skills as well as allowing the interns to become familiar with the EPA and its structure. Students work closely with a CSU faculty advisor and an EPA mentor to develop an overall learning project plan which will guide the internship. With direction from their faculty advisors, students will be mentored by the EPA directly. This is a for-credit Internship Program only, so no stipend/salary is provided. Internships will be offered each semester/quarter and are on an on-going basis. Most internships will be based at the student’s home campus. Interns will be required to submit a final report documenting their experience and project(s) with the EPA and complete a career profile on their EPA mentor that identifies the mentor’s requisite skill sets and educational requirements.

Eligibility Requirements:

enrolled at a CSU campus at least half time
minimum GPA of 2.5 (unless the EPA project requires a higher GPA)
enrolled in an internship course at a CSU campus

Available Projects:

Project Title	Preferred Campus
Analysis of California Refinery Reports to Several Environmental Programs	No preference
Analysis of California Refinery Toxic Releases and Production Data	No preference
Beach Cleanup and Source Reduction Project	CSU San Francisco, San Jose, and East Bay
EPA Region 9 State Waste Profiles	No preference
Lead Coordinator of EPA On-Campus Food Waste Prevention Program	CSU Fresno, San Francisco, and Chico
LEED Green Education	No preference
Nitrogen Footprint Analysis	CSU Fresno
Organize and Conduct West Coast Collaborative Sector Workgroup Virtual Meetings	Cal Poly Pomona and CSU Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino
Quantify the Benefits of Electric Vehicles and Other Technologies	No preference
Reduction in Mercury Exposure from Fish in Lake Nacimiento Targeting California Central Valley Southeast Asian Communities	CSU Fresno and San Diego State
Restoration of Arcade Creek	CSU Sacramento
Southwest Region Marine Debris Website Update	CSU San Francisco, San Jose, and East Bay
Supporting Source Reduction through Beach Debris Assessment	CSU Channel Islands, Humboldt, Long Beach, Monterey Bay, San Franciso and San Diego State
Sustainability Indicators	No preference
US – Mexico Border 2020	San Diego State (including Imperial Valley Campus)

CSU – EPA Internship Checklist

Before Enrollment:

Ensure you meet the Eligibility Requirements outlined at http://wri.csusb.edu/epa-csuInternshipProg.html.
Review available projects at http://wri.csusb.edu/epa-csuInternshipProg.html and submit *Requested Material from Student as outlined within each project that you are interested in applying for.
Submit *Preliminary Interest Form, *Consent to Release Information to a Third Party Form, and *Requested Material to Christina E. Rodriguez at chrodrig@csusb.edu.
Determine the internship course for enrollment at your campus – it must earn at least two units of credit.
Receive approval from the supervising faculty of that internship course for your enrollment.
Receive an offer by the EPA to intern on one of their projects.

Upon Receiving an Offer by the EPA:

Complete and submit the *Learning Project Plan Template.
Complete and Submit the *Liability Release Form that is specific to your campus: Bakersfield, Channel Islands, Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton, Humboldt, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Cal Maritime Academy, Monterey Bay, Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Jose, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Marcos, San Diego, Sonoma, Stanislaus
Complete the online EPA Internship Application here.

To Earn Internship Credit:

Submit your *unofficial transcripts via email, showing enrollment of the course AND again, after final grades have been submitted for your campus, showing that CREDIT was received for the internship course.
Meet all course requirements, as detailed by the syllabus of the internship course you are enrolled in.
Submit, via email, a *Final Report documenting the EPA experience and/or projects as detailed in the Final Report Instructions. This must be received one week before the end of the quarter.
Complete Student Internship Evaluation (will be accessed on-line). This will be sent to the student once the WRPI office has confirmed with the EPA that all project work has been completed at a satisfactory level.
Complete a *Career Profile on your EPA mentor and submit to chrodrig@csusb.edu. This must be received one week before the end of the quarter. Career Profile Guideline

EPA Internship FAQs

FAQs PDF

*An item that must be submitted to Christina E. Rodriguez, via email, at chrodrig@csusb.edu.

Contact Information

Christina E. Rodriguez, Internship Manager

Water Resources Institute, San Bernardino

909-537-3615 (office)

chrodrig@csusb.edu

EPA / CSU Internship