Jenna Motz is a Junior majoring in Wildlife Ecology and Environmental Studies. This past summer she had a Prairie Restoration Internship with the Madison Audubon Society.
Q: What things did you do to prepare for getting an internship?
A: I spent a lot of time perfecting my resume and asking advice from a variety of people about it—my advisors, peers, and my parents. I also spent a lot of time online searching for available internships, and I attended a couple of internship and job fairs, such as the Ecology Jobs fair held in the spring.
Q: What did the process of finding an internship teach you about getting an actual job?
A: I learned that finding jobs requires a lot of persistence—I only heard back from a fraction of the internships I applied for. I also realized that sometimes I have to re-evaluate my goals. As a wildlife ecology major, I wanted to find an internship that related to wild animals, but it turned out that a prairie restoration internship taught me a lot about wildlife habitat and both the native plants and animals of southern Wisconsin.
Q: What level of student organizations and/or volunteering did you pursue to enhance your resume and help improve your experience?
A: A big part of why I got my internship was because of my volunteer and student org experience, probably more so than my class experience and GPA. I recommend trying out a couple of student organizations that interest you and taking advantage of the opportunities they have to offer; a weekend volunteer trip doing prairie restoration in western Wisconsin my freshman year got me interested in restoration ecology in the first place.
Q: How did these opportunities help you in achieving your career goals?
A: Volunteer experiences and my involvement in the UW student chapter of The Wildlife Society have really helped me meet people in my field. Other students have recommended internships for me to check out, plus I’ve met a lot of professionals who have advice for me and have given me ideas about what kind of career I would like to pursue in conservation biology.
Q: What did you do at your internship?
A: I worked in Lake Mills, WI at Faville Grove Sanctuary, a prairie restoration site that also contains some remnant prairie that has never been plowed. I worked with a crew of four other interns and one supervisor eradicating invasive species from the prairie, collecting seeds from native plants, and learning about the plants and animals native to the area.
Q: In what way was your internship valuable to your professional development?
A: I learned a lot of techniques relevant to the field of conservation biology, and I also learned to identify a lot of species native to Wisconsin. Most importantly, though, I experienced field work for the first time, which I plan on doing for the rest of my career.
Q: What was the most important thing you learned at your internship?
A: My internship was a really good introduction to what life as a conservation biologist is like. Often, the experience is really rewarding, but there are frustrating days when our goals seem unattainable or it just isn’t fun to be outside. I learned that I can handle these frustrations and proved to myself that I really do enjoy working outdoors.
Q: Do you feel your internship experience was important to your career development and why?
A: My internship was a really good introduction to the environment of southern Wisconsin, and I hope it will serve as a great stepping stone to other opportunities related to wildlife ecology and research.
Q: Who do you feel was the person that helped you the most in your professional development and why?
A: My advisor at UW helped me a lot in my professional development. He was always available for help, and his own personal experience in the field has given me a lot of insight into what types of things I should be doing to gain experience in wildlife ecology.
