Internships for Students

Nature Groupie Interns find a turtle

Nature Groupie hosts interns every summer, who do stewardship and citizen science field work based out of the UNH campus in Durham, NH.

Examples of past internship projects include:

- Monitoring coastal marshes for invasive plants (UNH Extension, US Fish & Wildlife Service)

- Trail maintenance and construction (Town of Durham, Southeast Land Trust)

- Ecological restoration using native shrubs and perennials (Town of New Castle)

- Endangered butterfly habitat surveys (NH Fish & Game)

- Endangered bat and cottontail rabbit surveys (NH Fish & Game, US Fish & Wildlife Service)

- Invasive plant management (UNH Office of Woodlands)

- Conservation easement monitoring (Town of Durham, Bear Paw Regional Greenways)

Nature Groupie has hosted interns since 2014! See all our our past interns:

See all past interns

Every summer, Nature Groupie interns post stories about their experiences. Learn about what an internship with Nature Groupie can do for your career below!

Tips for a First Time Nature Groupie

November 24, 2020 by Grace McCulloch

Summer intern Grace provides insights and tips for first time outdoor volunteers.

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- Best Practices
- Invasive Plants
- Wildlife
5 Tips for Surviving Summertime Field Work on the New England Coast

July 26, 2021 by Julia Matthews, Sydney Gendreau, Olivia Pitta

Tips we wished we’d known at the beginning of the summer to hopefully help others who want (or need) to explore NH's Salt Marshes in the summer!

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- Best Practices
- Invasive Plants
Interns Start Summer

June 9, 2021 by Olivia Pitta, Sydney Gendreau, Julia Matthews

Introducing the Nature Groupie Stewardship Interns for 2021: Sydney Gendreau, Julia Matthews and Olivia Pitta!

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- Invasive Plants
- Other Stewardship
UNH Interns to Start Summer Stewardship

June 17, 2020 by Emily Chen, Grace McCulloch, Owen Hill

Introducing the Nature Groupie Stewardship Interns for 2020: Emily Chen, Owen Hill, and Grace McCulloch

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- Other Stewardship
Stewardship Tip: How to Know when the Beaver's Home

June 28, 2019 by Gus Muscato

Beavers are arguably New England's number one rodent, but do you know all the telltale signs that there's a beaver in your neighborhood?

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- Stewardship Tips
- Wildlife
Introducing the Summer Interns of 2019

June 3, 2019 by Mindy Prieur, Gus Muscato

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- Other Stewardship
Dog Days of Summer

August 16, 2018 by Alaina Rogers, Drew Parker

2018 Nature Groupie summer interns Alaina and Drew recap their final weeks working for Nature Groupie

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- Other Stewardship
Pulling Dandelions in the Clouds

August 13, 2018 by Diane DeVries

Summer intern Diane engaged nature volunteers and supported conservation partners during her internship at Nature Groupie in 2018. Here she shares photos of a workday on Mt. Washington!

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- Invasive Plants
Where the Interns Learn what "Personal Space" Means to a Seagull

July 30, 2018 by Drew Parker, Alaina Rogers

Drew and Alaina have been doing a crazy amount of work in the last few weeks! Enjoy the variety of projects they've been working on with our partners, Moreno Forestry, SELT, Gulls of Appledore, and the Town of Durham.

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- Other Stewardship
- Wildlife
A Tale of Turtles and Cottontails

June 18, 2018 by Alaina Rogers, Drew Parker

Working with New Hampshire State endangered wildlife species as Nature Groupie interns for outdoor volunteers in New England.

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- Other Stewardship
- Wildlife
Introducing the Nature Groupie Interns for 2018

June 4, 2018 by Diane DeVries, Drew Parker, Alaina Rogers

Summer interns with Nature Groupie worked on stewardship and outreach.

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- Other Stewardship
That's a Wrap!

August 14, 2017 by Morgan Martelle

Summer intern Morgan Martell's final reflections at the end of her ten week internship.

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- Other Stewardship
Here, There, and Everywhere

August 14, 2017 by Morgan Martelle

Summer intern Morgan Martell shares stories about the second half of her internship.

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- Other Stewardship
Stewardship Tip: Mapping Trails for TrailFinder

July 10, 2017 by Morgan Martelle

Summer intern Morgan Martell has spent the past two weeks mapping trails for Trail Finder.

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- Other Stewardship
- Stewardship Tips
Marsh Madness with U.S. Fish and Wildlife

June 19, 2017 by Morgan Martelle

Summer intern Morgan Martell worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the first two weeks of her internship.

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- Other Stewardship
Enthusiasm is Contagious: 5th Graders Fuel the Garlic Mustard Challenge

June 6, 2017 by Kelley McDonnell

Intern Kelley McDonnell ran a Garlic Mustard Challenge pull with 40 middle schoolers and staff.

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- Invasive Plants
Results from the 2016 Garlic Mustard Challenge: New England!

March 29, 2017 by Kelley McDonnell

Are you ready to pull plants for the next challenge?

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- Invasive Plants
A Summer to Remember

August 12, 2016 by Megan Verfaillie

Summer intern Megan Verfaillie shares some of her most memorable moments from the 2016 summer.

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- Citizen Science
- Other Stewardship
Unforgettable Ending

August 12, 2016 by Amanda Cugno

Summer intern Amanda Cugno shares experiences mapping trails, going to the Isles of Shoals, and helping out Bear-Paw Regional Greenways.

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- Other Stewardship
From Watchers to Catchers

July 29, 2016 by Megan Verfaillie

Summer intern Megan Verfaille's take on the UNH Storm Watchers project.

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- Citizen Science
- Other Stewardship
TrailFinder Testing

July 29, 2016 by Amanda Cugno

Summer intern Amanda Cugno shares her experiences helping map trails for TrailFinder.

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- Other Stewardship
- Trails
Butterflies, Bunnies, and Boundaries

July 14, 2016 by Amanda Cugno

Summer intern Amanda Cugno shares experiences with Bear-Paw boundaries and butterflies and bunnies with NH Fish & Game.

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- Other Stewardship
- Wildlife
The Best of Both Worlds

July 1, 2016 by Megan Verfaillie

From beach grass to water sampling, here's a few things I've learned here in my first month working with UNH!

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- Other Stewardship
Keeping the "Great" in the Great Bay

June 24, 2016 by Megan Verfaillie

Summer intern Megan Verfaillie shares her experience working on water quality in Great Bay.

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- Citizen Science
- Other Stewardship
Working with "SELTies" and "Woodlums"

June 23, 2016 by Amanda Cugno

Summer intern Amanda Cugno shares stories from working with Southeast Land Trust and UNH Office of Woodlands and Natural Areas.

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- Other Stewardship
Beach Blitz Volunteers Provide a Water Quality Snapshot of New Hampshire Beaches

September 8, 2015 by Evelyn Jones, Trina Lafata

New Hampshire’s beautiful and highly rated 13 mile slice of the Atlantic coast is a popular vacation destination in New England. So how clean are its coastal beaches?

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- Citizen Science
Strictly Professional at Southeast Land Trust

August 9, 2015 by Tomás Nocera

Summer intern Tomás Nocera writes about working with Phil Auger at the Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire in 2015.

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- Other Stewardship
Following the Tracks: One Bear-Paw at a Time

August 7, 2015 by Tomás Nocera

Summer intern Tomás Nocera describes his field work with Bear Paw Regional Greenways in 2015.

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- Other Stewardship
A Great Big World at Great Bay

July 15, 2015 by Tomás Nocera

For summer intern Tomás Nocera, working at Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge never provided a dull day.

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- Wildlife
Over the River and Through the Woods

June 19, 2015 by Tomás Nocera

Summer intern Tomás Nocera works with Steve Eisenhaure and the Woodlands and Natural Areas Office.

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- Other Stewardship
Off-Trail: Outdoor Skills for Conservation Workshop

June 11, 2015 by Trina Lafata, Tomás Nocera

Navigating through the woods with a compass and a map.

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- Training
Walking the Line

August 31, 2014 by Joanna Lewis

Summer intern Jo Lewis spent her last two weeks with the NRCS doing easement monitoring baseline reports and eating blueberries.

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- Other Stewardship
A Summer of Learning

August 5, 2014 by Lisa Demaine

Summer intern Lisa Demaine's shares news of her summer spent working with UNH Extension and NH Sea Grant.

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- Best Practices
One of the Crew

July 30, 2014 by Joanna Lewis

Summer intern Jo Lewis spent two weeks with the UNH Office of Woodlands and Natural Areas summer crew doing a variety of projects, including forest inventory, building bridges, and marking lots of trees.

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- Other Stewardship
Getting Bitter (Sweet)

July 16, 2014 by Joanna Lewis

Summer intern Jo Lewis spent two weeks with the New Castle Conservation Commission eradicating invasive plants and creating outreach documents.

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- Invasive Plants
A Day at the Docks with Baby Oysters

July 11, 2014 by Lisa Demaine

Oyster restoration in Great Bay was helped by volunteer oyster-counters all this week. Network intern Lisa Demaine tells what she learned on a day at the docks.

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- Wildlife
For the Birds

July 7, 2014 by Joanna Lewis

Summer intern Jo Lewis spent a week on the Isles of Shoals to assist in tern research with the UNH Cooperative Extension.

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- Wildlife
4-H Lends a Hand or 80

June 30, 2014 by Lisa Demaine

Forty 4H teens from across NH helped tackle the glossy buckthorn invasion of UNH’s College Woods as part of the annual NH 4-H Teen Conference.

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- Invasive Plants
Lending a Hand to a Land Trust

June 18, 2014 by Joanna Lewis

Summer intern Jo Lewis spent her first week with the Property Manager of Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire maintaining conserved properties.

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- Clean Ups
- Invasive Plants
- Other Stewardship
Meet Jo, our Summer Intern

June 10, 2014 by Joanna Lewis

Nature Groupie has an intern working with five different conservation partners this summer.

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- Other Stewardship