Career Opportunities and Internships
If you are looking for both an exciting and rewarding career, you have come to the right place! We take great pride in educating the next generation of park and resource professionals. The Parks and Conservation faculty members are dedicated to helping students find information on both seasonal and full-time positions.
Our alumni have competed very well regarding career entry and have worked in far too many agencies and positions to list. The examples below should give prospective students a good idea of how our graduates have followed their dreams.
SRU Parks and Conservation graduates have gone on to work as:
- Interpretive rangers
- Environmental educators
- Law enforcement rangers
- Resource managers
- Field technicians
- Naturalists
- Wildland fire fighters
- Preventative search and rescue technicians
- Campground rangers
- Visitor use assistants
- Fee collectors
- Emergency medical technicians
- Park paramedics
- Museum docents
The great thing about working in the great outdoors is the broad range of experiences and job locations. Our students have worked in some of the greatest national treasures in the United States including, but not limited to, the following national parks:
- Yosemite
- Yellowstone
- Acadia
- Grand Canyon
- Rocky Mountain
- Mesa Verde
- Canyonlands
- Arches
- Everglades
- Glacier
- Denali
- Sequoia and Kings Canyon
In addition to the national parks, our students have been very successful at finding employment in superb state park and conservation agencies including, but not limited to, the following states: Pennsylvania, Delaware, Montana, Arizona, California, Washington, Ohio and Colorado.
Job duties have included: boat patrol, hiking patrol, horse patrol, beach patrol, backcountry patrol, roving interpretation, resource monitoring, field research, and much more.
Internships
Students are encouraged to start "working" in the field during their freshmen year. The work experience may be paid or may be volunteer based depending on the agency and position. There are several opportunities for students to become involved while attending SRU. Many students also find summer employment with various agencies and gain valuable experience.
The professional field experience through the SRU PRM program involves a 3-credit practicum experience that is usually taken after the sophomore year. The 12-credit internship is at the end of the degree program and is typically taken in the summer of the senior year. Students will learn more about the internship requirements through meetings with the faculty.