Internship Awards
Undergraduate students with confirmed volunteer, unpaid or minimally paid* internships
off-campus are invited to apply for URSA’s Internship Award.
- Internships Applications are eligible for up to $3,000 for a Fall- or Spring-term
internship or $6,000 for a Summer-term internship.
- The URSA Internship Award will accept applications on a rolling basis as long as funds
remain.
- Students must have a secured opportunity in order to apply for funding.
*Minimally paid internships are those arrangements in which the stipend or hourly wage does not sufficiently cover the cost-of-living expenses (e.g., housing, food, transportation, etc.). In these situations, URSA’s Internship Award would serve as “gap” funding.
Eligible Internships must:
- Be overseen by an organization external to UAF and the UA System.
Internships must take place off-campus. Funding will not be provided for UAF or UA System-funded or partially supported positions. - Be supervised by a professional staff member within the employer organization.
The supervisor may not be affiliated with UAF. Supervisors will be required to verify the internship prior to awarding and will also be asked to complete a midpoint and final student evaluation. - Provide supervision, training, and/or exposure to the student’s career field of interest.
- Be unpaid or minimally paid* based on the student’s cost-of-living need.
- Preference will be given to students with volunteer, unpaid, or minimally paid* opportunities.
Students will fulltime paid internships are eligible to apply (e.g., for positions with high costs of living as documented in the application). Please note, applicants are not eligible for funding beyond living expenses.
Ethan Stone, Summer 2023 Awardee
Interdisciplinary Studies: One Health Perspectives
Internship: Husbandry Intern, The Alaska Zoo (Anchorage, AK)
"My goal is to become a Wildlife Veterinarian one day and this internship was a dream opportunity to begin that pursuit. My main goal for this internship was to accumulate hands on animal care experience, and I definitely accomplished it. This internship provided me with countless opportunities to work with wildlife, and gain a deeper understanding of wildlife rehabilitation will be invaluable for my future career...I strongly recommend that every eligible undergraduate should apply for an URSA Internship Award. The application process is easy and the benefits will truly make a difference in your experience."
Kristal Bozeman, Summer 2023 Internship Awardee
Justice
Internship: Mentor Coordinator, Fairbanks Veterans Court
The Fairbanks Veterans Court is a specialized restorative justice court within the Alaska Court System. Veterans who find themselves within the Fairbanks Veterans Court are paired with a mentor who serves as a “battle buddy” or “wingman” to the veteran during the eighteen month program. The mentor coordinator is the person who recruits mentors, compiles tailored training based on current veteran needs, and serves as a liaison between the court and the mentors.
"[This internship] greatly impacted my educational interests and goals. I am minoring in Justice, and restorative justice caught my attention early on in my classes. Participating with the court has helped me better understand the inner workings of restorative justice programs, which has been invaluable to my education."
Alex Long, Summer 2023 Internship Awardee
Interdisciplinary Studies: Ecocultural Film and Photography
Internship: Film Crew Assistant, Seed Media (Valdez, AK)
"Through my internship at Seed Media, I gained valuable skills and experience in all aspects of filmmaking, from pre-production to production and post-production. Over the course of numerous commercial productions I learned or improved my abilities in: camera operation, drone operation, filming interviews, lighting sets, recording sound, editing, photography, organizing productions, working with a team, and more.
The URSA Internship Award presents an incredibly opportunity to grow. The kind of on-the-job experience you get from an internship is invaluable to your education, so don't hesitate to look for internship opportunities and apply for funding from URSA."
Grace Hopkins, Summer 2023 Internship Awardee
Security and Emergency Management
Internship: Disaster Program Specialist Intern, American Red Cross of Alaska
"The overall goal I had was to expand my knowledge and gain experience in the field of emergency management and disaster relief. I quickly figured out through the interview and orientation process that the experience I was seeking to gain fell under Disaster Cycle Services (DCS), which included disaster operations and management, client care, and immediate services. I was given the title of Disaster Program Specialist - Intern by the Regional Executive (CEO) of Alaska. During this internship, I developed further communication skills (i.e. professional dialogue) via Microsoft Outlook/Teams, workplace evaluation, and review, creating small and big goals, delegating and accomplishing tasks given to me by my supervisor, responding to a Disaster Action Team (DAT) call to a partial structure collapse, preparation for local news interviews (public relations), and 50+ hours of training. "
Shelby Thompson, Spring 2024 Awardee
Fisheries
Internship: Intern, California Killer Whale Watch Project (Monterey Bay, California)
"My goal for this internship was to capture behavior of Killer Whales in wild for my research paper titled, "Killer Whales in Captivity vs. the Wild." I did just that! I was able to capture their behaviors along with their physical characteristics in the wild and compare it to that of the research I captured in captivity. A learning objective that I had going into this internship was to master species and group identification, and I can say without a doubt, that I have mastered it.
"This internship sharpened my data collection skills, as well as improved my skills using a camera. I had never used a professional camera for documenting species before, and I left the internship feeling like a pro! I feel like I have more confidence to do both of these things. This is an extremely important tool for wanting to work as a research scientist studying Marine Mammals in the field. "
- Must be a degree-seeking undergraduate student
Students of any year of study, from any UAF-affiliated campus, working toward an Occupational Endorsement, Certificate, Associate's Degree or Bachelor's Degree in any discipline are eligible to apply for internship funding. Middle College students, graduated undergraduate students and graduate students are not eligible to apply.- UAF Campuses Include: Bristol Bay, Chukchi, CTC, Troth Yeddha’, Interior Alaska, Kuskokwim, Northwest
- Registration:
- Fall and Spring Awards: Students must be enrolled in at least 3 credits at any UAF-affiliated campus for the funded semester.
- Summer Awards: Students must be enrolled for at least 3 credits during the spring application semester and must plan to enroll in at least 3 credits for the fall semester following the award. Students who graduate in the spring term when the summer award opens are not eligible to apply.
- GPA of 2.3 or higher
Students with a GPA lower than 2.3 are not eligible. - **Students may only receive one Internship Award per academic year and one award per internship opportunity (should the opportunity continue into another academic year).**
- Awardees must complete a Reflection Form within two weeks of completing the internship.
- Final reporting deadlines will be listed in the award paperwork.
- Awarded students will receive two evaluations (a mid-point and final review) from
their internship supervisor/mentor.
- Evaluation forms are to be signed by the student, supervisor/mentor, and URSA Director and submitted to the URSA Office (uaf-ursa@alaska.edu).
- The evaluation form can be downloaded from the Internship Award webpage.
- Final products to be submitted with the reflection form include:
- 2-3 high resolution pictures of the awardee from their internship opportunity with captions.
- IMPORTANT: Failure to submit a final evaluation or to submit final products will make the awardee ineligible to receive future URSA funding.
This award is for FELLOWSHIP FUNDS (student stipends) only.
- Fellowship payments will be disbursed in three equal installments via direct deposit (e.g., a 6-week internship will receive payments during week 2, week 4, and week 6.)
- Scheduled disbursement dates will be disclosed in the funding paperwork upon awarding.
- Funding requests for supplies, services, or tuition will not be considered.
- This award is intended to reduce the financial barriers to internship participation by covering the difference between cost-of-living expenses (e.g., housing, travel, day-to-day transportation) and funds provided by the opportunity.
- The URSA Internship Award will accept applications on a rolling basis as long as funds
remain.
- Opportunities must have a submitted application and be awarded prior to the start date. Retroactive funding will not be considered.
- Applications will be reviewed and decisions will be awarded by the URSA Office within two weeks of application.
- Applicants will be notified via their alaska.edu email.
- Financial need expressed through the submitted proposal.
- Student learning outcomes and/or the career/academic benefit articulated in the proposal.
- Adequate supervision or training as explained in the proposal.
- Written quality of the proposal.
- Letter of employment from the external organization.
**Preference will be given to students with volunteer, unpaid, or minimally paid opportunities. Students will fulltime paid internships are eligible to apply (e.g., for positions with high costs of living as documented in the application). Please note, applicants are not eligible for funding beyond living expenses.**