During my time at UVM I have learned that I would prefer a job that is multidisciplinary, that has field and office components, includes independent and collaborative work, and integrates the natural and social sciences. For a while, I have had an idea that environmental consulting is the route I would like to take after college. I knew this meant coming up with solutions and mitigation strategies for private landowners, who need to curtail their environmental impact. I did not know much beyond that. I wanted to find out: what a typical workday was like, what type of people a consultant worked for, and what types of things consultants specialized in. For this reason, working as an Environmental Technician Intern with Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB), an engineering, planning, and design firm, for a semester was an invaluable experience for me.

Each week was different. The fieldwork I did included wetland delineations, water quality testing, and stream assessments. The wetland delineations entailed taking GPS points, doing vegetation surveys, and describing soils. Stream assessments included doing pebble counts to get an idea of how stable the sediment on the river bottom was, as well as cross-sectional surveys of streams to estimate flow, which influences what type of culvert should be used and how pollutants disperse within the water. In the office, I assisted with a multitude of tasks, including watershed delineations, checking data tables for quality assurance and control, creating photo logs of sites for a telecommunications project, and entering data and graphing trends in Excel.

My favorite part of this internship was working with consultants in the field. I learned how much I liked wetland fieldwork and that wildlife work is often associated with wetlands work. I learned that being a wetland scientist or a field biologist at a consulting firm would be an ideal first job for me.

Overall, I am content that I learned about what a typical day can be like for an environmental consultant. At first, I was a little overwhelmed with all the new software programs I was learning to use. However, I loved the close-knit community feel in the office, and after a few weeks of working there, I became more comfortable working in an office setting. I love the idea of working with landowners and companies to mitigate their impact on the environment, particularly with development projects. I also love that I could potentially become a wildlife specialist within a consulting firm. The multidisciplinary nature of this work is what appeals most to me. I can work in the office, collect data in the field, and work with people to mitigate their impact on the environment.

I had a wonderful internship experience, and I hope to keep my connection with VHB! I would advise future interns to be persistent and contact companies or organizations that they are passionate about. Even if companies are not advertising internship positions, talk to people within the company with similar interests to you to find out how they got to where they are today.