Internship Location: Madison WI
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Policy Areas: Environment/Research
From May until August, I worked for the non-profit Clean Wisconsin here in Madison. Its mission is to protect and preserve Wisconsin’s clean air, clean water, and natural heritage. Their work spans many policy areas, including clean air, clean water, climate change, public health, and more. I was one of the Science Policy Research Fellows they hosted this summer. This was an excellent internship, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in environmental policy and non-profit work. My work was largely centered around building institutional knowledge for staff members about emerging environmental issues in Wisconsin. All interns research different topics based on their interests, but I mainly focused on lead exposure pathways and abatement, biofuels, electric vehicles, PFAS contamination, and other environmental justice topics. I drafted memos, wrote full reports, compiled literature reviews, and regularly delivered staff briefings about my research topics. This internship was largely remote, which was not an issue given the independence of the work. I was still able to connect with my supervisor, the other research fellow, the interns, and other full-time staff members at the organization. The environment of the internship was very relaxed, which I appreciated given the stress of the school year due to the ongoing pandemic.