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The UCSC campus is fortunate in that it hosts a diversity of ecosystems
and wildlife such as native meadows, riparian zones, evergreen forests,
maritime chaparral, Golden Eagles, Ohlone Tiger Beetles and Red
Legged Frogs. In addition to Lucy Lynn’s previous internship
and volunteer experience with the UCSC Site Stewardship Program,
her backpacking experiences induced an unyielding love and appreciation
for nature’s beauty and sparked her interest in restoration
work, making her the prime candidate for the Site Stewardship Landscape
Management Intern for the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Internship
Program (CUIP). CUIP is a program sponsored by the Chancellor’s
office which provides undergraduates with internships in administrative
departments throughout the UCSC campus.
Lucy is a fourth year student majoring in Environmental Studies
with an emphasis in ecological restoration. Her internship duties
included the creation of a management plan for transition zone areas
which are defined on campus as undeveloped lands that are still
highly impacted by humans, working with other Site Stewardship interns
and volunteers on various restoration projects like invasive species
removal and erosion control, and the creation of a progress report
summarizing the first three years of the Site Stewardship Grassland
Monitoring Program.
The CUIP course, Leadership and Institutions, highly enriched Lucy’s
internship experience by exposing her, through various guest lectures
and focus groups, to how the university is run, and how her internship
plays a role in the mission of UCSC. Class discussions were also
highly valued by Lucy because the variety of CUIP interns’
interests allowed for a broad range of new ideas and opinions to
be shared and learned from.
Lucy feels that CUIP was a valuable experience that will serve her
throughout the rest of her life. Not only did Lucy gain practical
experience in the field of work she plans to pursue as a career
upon graduation, she also improved necessary skills through the
internship experience such as creating project goals and objectives
and setting them to a timeline, preparing power point presentations,
public speaking and understanding employer-employee relations. Lucy’s
internship experience also helped her be more aware of her personal
values and learn how to effectively communicate and work with others
having differing values. Furthermore, Lucy’s internship gave
her the opportunity to better define and realize how to meet her
educational and career goals.
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