Science to policy
Ways to support
Ways to support
NGRREC is home to a highly successful undergraduate research program that has hosted over 480 interns from 41 academic institutions since its inception in 2003. Our interns work directly with a scientist mentor who instructs and supervises the intern while they complete a research project they design in collaboration with their mentor. The projects can include field work, lab work or often a combination of both. The internship program runs every fall, spring and summer semester and concludes with the interns presenting their projects at a professional Intern Symposium hosted at the Jerry F. Costello Field Station.
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National Great Rivers has been fortunate to receive funding for our internship program from several sources, including the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, The Monticello Foundation and the Maxwell-Hanrahan Foundation.
Amy Monroe, Intern Programs & Special Projects Coordinator
NGRREC/L&C
One Confluence Way
East Alton, IL 62024
ngrrecintern@lc.edu
Phone: (618) 468-2910
The National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC) invites highly motivated undergraduates who are interested in pursuing careers in the life sciences to apply to our 10-week “Wetland Science in a Modern World” residential summer research experience internship program.
Please explore our program with the information provided below and learn more about our organization and amazing staff throughout our web page. If you have questions, please contact Amy Monroe, our Intern Program Coordinator, at ammonroe@lc.edu.
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Wetlands are a critical component of freshwater systems and provide many ecological services, including filtering runoff, absorbing floodwater, recharging groundwater supplies, removing pollution, sequestering carbon and providing habitat for a diverse range of organisms. They are also key economic drivers of local economies due to their importance for agriculture, recreation and transportation. In Illinois, wetland conversion and drainage has resulted in an estimated 90% loss of our original wetlands, and this, in turn, has impacted how freshwater moves across the landscape before entering the great river basins that collectively make up the Mississippi River watershed.
In our changing world, wetlands are heavily influenced by a diverse suite of natural and anthropogenic processes acting across the landscape of river watersheds at a variety of spatiotemporal scales, including land use change, pollution, invasive species and changing patterns of temperature and precipitation, both short term and long term. Increased instability in the climate has accelerated the loss and degradation of wetlands across the basin of the Mississippi River and globally. Advancing research on wetlands is more important than ever to ensure the long-term ecological and economic health of river watersheds and to assess current restoration and management practices.
There have also been advances in the capability and accessibility of technologies scientists use to study the natural world and quantitative frameworks that explain and predict the structure and function of the ecosystems we study. These technological developments include automated tracking, remote sensing and eDNA, to highlight a few. On a conceptual scale, wetland scientists have a renewed focus on the flux of matter, energy and information within and across ecosystems and continue efforts to unify ecology across time, space and levels of biological organization in a reflection of the complexities of our rapidly changing biosphere.
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Wetland science is a unique discipline that blends biology, chemistry, computer science, ecology, engineering and mathematics and research in wetland science is most often multi-disciplinary, which is the approach we take to the student experience in our summer internship program. Understanding wetlands in our changing world will require a multi-disciplinary approach that utilizes rapidly evolving technologies to answer the multitude of questions at the forefront of both the physical and biological sciences. This program focuses on an integrative and innovative approach to studying wetlands using technological and theoretical developments with a goal of unifying wetland science across multiple scales and disciplines of study.
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In our summer program, interns will base their research at the NGRREC Jerry F. Costello Field Station located in East Alton (IL). Depending on their project, students will have the opportunity to conduct research at the station and/or at many field sites located in the watershed of our confluence area, which includes the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers. Under the mentorship of our scientists at NGRREC, interns will learn project design, field and lab-based research methods, data collection and data analyses. The internship program culminates in a presentation at the NGRREC summer intern research symposium, which provides our interns with an opportunity to develop and practice critical communication skills.
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Our 2025 summer internship program will run from May 27, 2025-August 1, 2025. Interns will receive a stipend of $8,000, relocation reimbursement and up to $500 and $1000 for research project expenses. Housing is provided for interns at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, approximately 9 miles from the Jerry F. Costello Field Station (transportation back and forth is provided). During the 10 weeks of the program, interns will work closely with their assigned mentor and other members of our research team on a variety of lab and field-based research projects. A primary goal of our program is to provide students with hands-on experiences while exploring multiple scientific disciplines through their research. After the first introductory week, students will begin their research while also participating in a variety of activities, including professional development workshops in scientific communication, manuscript preparation, a career panel and the development of a professional research poster and presentation for the research symposium that is the culmination of the summer program.
Interns accepted into the program will be matched with an NGRREC scientist as their mentor. The mentor and their research team will provide guidance and support for their research project throughout the summer program. The intern-mentor match is made based on the list of research projects the intern selects during the application process. The program coordinator makes every effort to match the intern with their top-ranked choice whenever possible.
Throughout the summer, interns will have the opportunity to attend events that foster relationships between the other interns in their class and members of the NGRREC community, like BBQs at the station, trips on the Mississippi River and exploration of the world-class science institutions in the St. Louis region, including the Missouri Botanical Garden and the St. Louis Zoo. Interns will visit a wide variety of our field sites to experience the different aquatic and terrestrial habitats of the Mississippi River basin.
Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its territories.
Applicants must have an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or above at the end of the fall term prior to submitting their application.
Applicants must be an undergraduate student during the period of the summer program. An undergraduate student is defined as a student who is enrolled in a degree program (part-time or full-time) leading to a bachelor’s degree. Students who graduated from their undergraduate institution prior to the summer program are NOT eligible to apply. Students who have graduated from their high school but have not started their bachelor’s degree are NOT eligible to apply.
Step 1 - You will need to have the following to submit your application:
Step 2 - Complete and submit your application
Step 3 - Sit back, relax and wait!
We will notify you of your acceptance into our program via email no later than March 21, 2025. In the event a student declines to accept their opportunity, the next ranked student will be offered the opportunity. Once we have filled all opportunities, if you are not selected, you will be notified via email, and we encourage you to apply again in the next summer program.
After selected students confirm their participation in the program, they will receive a schedule of activities, a roster of all the interns in the program and research mentors participating in the program. Additionally, interns will receive detailed information on the logistics related to the program, including housing assignments and travel. There will be several forms that you will need to complete, and it is critical that you follow all directions and meet deadlines set by Amy Monroe, the Intern Program Coordinator. Failure to provide the required information and meet pre-program deadlines could result in dismissal from the program.
Finally, you will receive your mentor assignment based on the areas of interest the intern selected in the application. A synopsis of the intern’s background is sent to the proposed mentor for review and approval; if the mentor accepts the intern, they will contact them via email to provide the students with the necessary background information and materials to be read related to their project.
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Each year, NGRREC hosts quarterly internship programs for college sophomores, juniors and seniors. This program is a paid internship opportunity and gives students an opportunity to gain real experience in a variety of environmental careers, such as ecological research, education, social science and policy. National Great Rivers Research and Education Center Internship Programs give students a chance to gain meaningful experience in a variety of careers with projects spanning from ecological research, education, outreach and policy to the social science fields.
This program is open exclusively to students enrolled in colleges and universities within the greater St. Louis area or residing in one of the seven counties within the Lewis and Clark Community College District. Each intern is managed by an advisor who is responsible for instruction, supervision and mentoring of the intern, as well as the design of the internship project. At the conclusion of this internship, students present their project results to their fellow interns, research advisors and invited guests at a professional Intern Symposium.
