College Internships – Helping Them to Help Us
“Here’s a list of everywhere IIC interns helped: the Visitor Center, the shuttle line, South Campground, Canyon Junction, the Lodge, the Grotto, and the Temple of Sinawava. Behind the scenes they helped design maps and graphics, grew native plants in the nursery, and helped staff with an entrance station re-design. Overlay these locations on a map and you’ll see how important and integrated IIC interns are to park operations. We could not do it without them.”
– Eleanor Siebers, Internships Coordinator
For college interns in Utah, public lands offer some of the most engaging internship experiences in the nation. The Intergovernmental Internship Cooperative (IIC), is a student focused career driven pipeline unlike any other. Based on the campus of Southern Utah University in Cedar City, this program sends eager students from universities across the state, into the field. These interns work side-by-side with park staff assisting with park management, operations, and research. Nearly one out of every two participants will go on to work in positions related to land and resource management.
This past season, IIC interns were relied on more than ever, helping to maintain critical operations during the pandemic. IIC students lead by providing socially distanced interpretive information at parks like Cedar Breaks, helping to manage traffic and load shuttles in Zion, and working to offer support in their own communities like on the Kaibab Paiute Reservation surrounding Pipe Spring National Monument.
Technology focused interns were offered the chance to partner with the team at ParkData working in the field to keep high tech sensors calibrated. Interns assisted with trail construction along the lesser traveled Kolob Terrace Road.
The program’s combined efforts saw more than 95,000 hours of student-lead stewardship across the region with Zion Forever supporters working to help fund the programs at Zion, Cedar Breaks, and Pipe Spring. Your continued gifts prepare future leaders for meaningful careers in public lands management.
