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 Internships at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary
Download an Internship Application (PDF)
Do you have a strong interest in raptors and birds?
Are you committed to a career in conservation?
If so, a Hawk Mountain Sanctuary internship offers hands-on training experience that strengthens your ability to contribute to conservation.
Conservation internships at Hawk Mountain date back to the 1940s, when then-curator Maurice Broun began training local high school students. Seth Benz of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, was the Sanctuary's first official college-level intern in 1976; four-month spring and autumn internships were established in 1979. Manachem Adar of Israel became the first international intern in 1986.
Today, more than 300 students from 62 countries on six continents have trained as an intern at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Many have gone on to leadership positions in conservation science, science education, and natural resource management, making the Sanctuary's International Conservation Science Internship Program one of its most successful endeavors ever.
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's internship and training programs provide hands-on learning and field experiences for individuals committed to careers in natural-resource conservation. Interns learn basic techniques in science and education by focusing on migratory raptors.The program also develops multicultural awareness and international partnerships, essential aspects of successful large-scale conservation efforts. Hawk Mountain offers five types of training opportunities:
Conservation Science Internship
Summer Field Experience
Leadership Positions
Projects for Graduate Students
1. Conservation Science Internships
Do you have a strong interest in raptors and birds? Are you committed to a career in conservation? If so, a Hawk Mountain Sanctuary internship offers one of the best hands-on training experiences.
Each year, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary offers 12-14 competitive Conservation Science internships to applicants from around the globe. Interns work closely in a mentor-student relationship with at least one senior staff member. Each intern completes an independent project and gains hands-on experience in one of three tracks.
This four-month program consists of exposure to and training in all aspects of Sanctuary conservation, including science, education, and conservation focused on migratory raptors, environmental survey and monitoring, data management, land management, ecotourism, membership programs and fundraising, and the use of volunteer resources. Interns work shoulder-to-shoulder with professional mentors, and each intern completes a collaborative project while at the Sanctuary. Interns are selected from Pennsylvania, the United States and abroad.
2. Summer Field Experience Internships in Conservation
Two-month Summer Field Experience Internships consist of exposure to and training in one or more aspects of fieldwork or data management at the Sanctuary. Emphasis is on training, and in particular, experiential learning with a focus on the Sanctuary's ecology. Interns work shoulder-to-shoulder with professional mentors, and each intern completes a collaborative project while at the Sanctuary.
Summer field experience internships are designed specifically for upper-level North American college undergraduates who wish to contribute to Hawk Mountain's conservation efforts while learning aspects of conservation science. Unpaid internships only.
Contact: Dr. Keith L. Bildstein
Sarkis Acopian Director of Conservation Science
570-943-3411 or bildstein@hawkmtn.org
3. Academic Internships
Academic internships are available to local college undergraduates who are participating in internship programs in affiliation with academic institutions. Academic internships occur over one or more semesters, and are individually designed based on student interest and need. Internships involve three or more study hours per week on library, lab, or field projects conducted under the joint supervision of the intern's faculty supervisor and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary staff.
Academic internships are available throughout the school year and in summer. Unpaid internships only.
Contact:
Dr. Keith L. Bildstein
Sarkis Acopian Director of Conservation Science
570-943-3411 or bildstein@hawkmtn.org
4. Leadership Internships in Conservation
This internship focuses on the professional development of young conservation scientists who have completed graduate training and are well established in their fields. Training focuses on the development of decision-making, team-building, and communications skills within a global context.
Leadership interns work shoulder-to-shoulder with Sanctuary professionals in the development of education curricula, the summary analysis and interpretation of regional, continental, and global datasets, organization and interpretation of Sanctuary datasets, and the training of international interns.
Unlike international interns, who apply for places in the program, leadership interns are identified on the basis of recent productivity in Conservation Science and are invited to Hawk Mountain by the Sanctuary's professional staff. Leadership interns reside in the Scientist Residence during the course of their stay, and act as a mentor to the current class of Conservation Science Interns.
5. Group Internships and Training in Raptor Conservation
Group Internships and Training address the need for teamwork in many aspects of conservation science as applied to the establishment of raptor-migration watchsites. Hawk Mountain offers one-week to one-month intensive internship-training experiences for two-to-six person teams of individuals from conservation organizations in need of such training. Teams are chosen on the basis of need and on the potential for establishing watchsites along important migration corridors.
Teams receive intense training in migration watchsite design, organization, support, and management, as well as in count and other appropriate field techniques, data management, report write-up, and professional correspondence.
Contact:
Dr. Keith L. Bildstein
Sarkis Acopian Director of Conservation Science
570-943-3411 or bildstein@hawkmtn.org
Grants to intern alumni
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary recognizes that training alone does not ensure successful careers in raptor conservation, and that interns require support following their time at the Sanctuary. Hawk Mountain trains interns in grant-proposal writing, and introduces them to potential funding agencies and foundations during their internships. It also continues to provide interns and the organizations for which they work with news of funding opportunities after they leave the Sanctuary, and works with them to secure funding.
The Sanctuary also offers competitive "incite" grants to support the conservation efforts of its interns. Grants are awarded on the basis of the scientific and conservation merits of proposals, and on the likelihood that the work will contribute significantly to raptor conservation. All aspects of raptor science, education, and conservation are supported, with particular emphasis on the establishment of watchsites along important migration flyways, and on the study of raptors whose conservation status is threatened or uncertain.
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