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National Park Service Risk Management Internship Program

The National Park Service (NPS) Risk Management Internship is an SCA/NPS partnership to support park injury prevention efforts and enhance visitor and employee safety programs.  SCA seeks both graduate and undergraduate students from a variety of fields to complete 3-6 month internships at NPS sites around the nation.

Programs

Public Risk Management Internship: Intern will input and analyze visitor injury data; develop new programs and/or safety communications addressing targeted injury issues; and/or assess methods parks use to deliver safety messages to more effectively target and assess prevention efforts.
Employee Safety Internship: Park will develop a project for intern to assist with safety program elements such as developing accident trend analysis; conducting internal reviews of park safety plans; developing park standard operating procedures (SOPS) and conducting job hazard analysis reviews and updates.

Qualifications

  • Excellent analytic and organizational skills, and oral and written communication skills
  • Ability to take initiative and work independently
  • Ability to work with a multi-disciplinary group
  • Students interested in public health, occupational health, behavioral sciences, communications, wilderness and recreational risk management, wilderness medicine, safety studies, and/or injury epidemiology are encouraged to apply.

Benefits to the Intern

  • Receive weekly subsistence, housing, training, and transportation to and from the park, eligible for AmeriCorps grant
  • Fulfill graduate practicum requirements and/or receive credit
  • Attendance at an intensive, highly specialized, weeklong training in June
  • Spend a summer working in a national park
  • Apply and refine skills in data collection, literature review, risk assessment, technical writing, and presentation creation
  • Have a direct impact on saving lives and enhance visitor and employee safety programs in our parks

Training

  • Interns will attend an intensive, weeklong training June 4-8, 2012.
  • Among topics included are: an orientation to NPS, injury epidemiology, data collection, task planning, CPR, and wilderness medicine essentials.
  • Instructors include NPS staff, SCA staff, and injury prevention specialists.

Testimonials

"My internship provided an opportunity for personal development and growth while teaching me how I can make a positive difference.  It was the best internship I could have hoped for." 
- Beth Borkowski, Intern at Lassen Volcanic National Park, summer 2010 and undergraduate at Indiana University, Bloomington

"I greatly appreciated the chance to work with the Park Service...I hope to use this experience as a jumping-off point for future research -- perhaps dissertation research -- either here or in another park."
- Laura Rickard, SCA Intern at Mount Rainier National Park, summer 2009 and doctoral student at Cornell University

Application Process

  • Review the internships listed below.
  • Complete the first two pages of the online application.
  • Attach a resume and cover letter explaining how this internship will advance your professional goals in the Resume and Documents section of the Applicant Resume page.
  • If you wish to submit a different cover letter for each internship you apply for, include the name of the park in the title of each letter.
  • Contact Joey Ruehrwein at Jruehrwein@thesca.org with any questions about the application process.