Hi, I am looking for environmental related summer programs. Can someone recommend pretigious or moderately pretigious for a rising sophomore?
I am a big fan of Sea Education Association.The have two types of summer programs, one land based and one on their ocean going research vessel. My kid did this the summer after sophomore year but they do take rising sophomores.
https://www.sea.edu/high_school_programs
Fortunately, environmental science runs less on prestige and more on skills gained. Think in terms of gaining skills that later lead to more competitive opportunities. No one starts at the top. This actually gives you more freedom to try a variety of subspecialties which will help you narrow down what aspect of the field will be your niche. That self knowledge will be a huge leg up when you enter high ed.
The skills gained at SEA got her a college internship in ocean research. They also gave her essay and interview material for highly competitive high school summer and college opportunities.
What kind of local area are you in? Is there a nature center nearby that could use reliable labor for projects and day camps? Is there a zoo that runs summer programming? Our local wildlife rehabilitation center lets teens volunteer with a parent so I went along and fed baby birds in incubators with her.
If you tell me a little more about what you envision the future to be, I can look through my bookmarks and see it I can give you a link to a program. First, do what you can locally this coming semester so that you can demonstrate your commitment.
Hi Snowball City, thank you so much for your reply! We are in PA. My kid’s interest is in water quality. She volunteers at local nature centers. She is doing a science fair project this school year and hopes to find a project topic for next year and gain a bit science research skills through a summer program. I am not sure local college professors are willing to take a 9th grader for lab research. I am hoping the summer program leads her to a more competitive opportunity, such as intership at a lab next summer.
Your daughter sounds super committed and active.
I am from a rural area. I guess I don’t understand what the benefit is in trying to get into a research lab while so young. My bias is towards getting their hands dirty and outdoors but I am most likely reflecting the norms of my area.
To give you a sense of some of the summer jobs for college students - my daughter had been offered a position here for the summer after freshman year of college. You daughter can read the descriptions and see if that kind of thing attracts her.
https://limnology.wisc.edu/employment/summer-undergraduate-job-descriptions/
UW-Madison used to have a terrific summer science program that was research focussed. My daughter and her professor went around to various residential storm ponds collecting water and insect larvae samples. I think the amount of vegetation surrounding the ponds was also quantified. The data was used in a long term study being done by the university. Her SEA training was very useful.
In addition to smarts, she should be comfortable operating small boats and pontoons and driving a 4 wheeler. Bonus points for pulling a trailer and launching a boat. In a couple of years shake your family tree and friend network and see if she can gain access to these for practice.
The big state universities should get on your radar for her college education. We had been looking at UWMadison and Milwaukee ( new environmental engineering major there https://uwm.edu/engineering/bse-in-environmental-engineering-on-the-horizon/), Michigan, and Michigan State. The research facilities and dollars cannot be replicated in a smaller college. Check into colleges associated with Sea Grant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Sea_Grant_College_Program Fresh water is represented too https://greatlakesseagrant.com Of course, my kid ended up at an elite small LAC but she made sure every summer counted. Colleges that can link together in a consortium have a critical mass too. https://www.fivecolleges.edu/marine
Does she have an aquarium at home and can maintain its water chemistry and quality? At college, someone has to do that for the ecology labs and it is a good foot in the door into the labs.
Does she have SCUBA certification?
From my bookmarks
https://www.eckerd.edu/precollege/find-program/marine-science/
https://dickey.dartmouth.edu/arctic-environment/programs/jsep-and-jase
Keep an eye out to see if this program restarts https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/outreach-and-education/high-school-interns-woods-hole-science-aquarium
http://climateandlife.columbia.edu/high-school-intern-program/
Best of luck
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/
Maybe you will get some info in the summer programs area, which is for summer programs for high school students.
@Snowball City, thanks for your generous sharing for the recourses! I will take time to go through them. Having an aquarium is a fantastic idea. I really appreciate it.
@thumper1, this is a comprehensive list of summer programs. Thank you so much!
Magazines we had in the living area:
National Geographic
http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org
https://www.sigmaxi.org/publications
The Economist
Perhaps some lurkers can recommend additional ones