New Urban Forestry Partnership with WSU Includes Paid Student Internships
TCC is one of four colleges working with WSU’s Puyallup Extension Campus to administer a $1.8 million Inflation Reduction Act grant from the USDA Forest Service and Community Forestry Program. The grant will be spent over five years, and part of that money will fund five paid summer internships to be split among the four participating community colleges each year. The students chosen will be paid $880 per week, plus a $500 travel stipend, for 12 weeks. Interested? Apply here.
Harrison is one of the faculty members who got TCC involved in the program. She started taking classes on tours of WSU’s Puyallup Extension Campus a few years ago, and WSU professor Dr. Joey Hulbert told her that he wanted to apply for a forestry grant that would provide money for community colleges to have interns, and trees to plant, and equipment, and urban forestry curriculum. He ended up writing and winning the grant, and TCC will participate in its implementation, along with Highline, Whatcom, and Spokane community colleges. The goal is to grow urban forests in the communities surrounding the four community colleges.
In WSU’s article about the program, Hulbert noted that heat waves disproportionately affect communities without tree cover, and communities without tree cover tend to be disadvantaged communities.
Students could end up doing some work on the TCC campus, but they would probably work with an outside organization. For instance, they could choose to spend the summer working with the Tacoma Tree Foundation. There’s also considerable flexibility on what students do during their 12-week internships. They could go out to parks and gather data – or they could stay home and analyze data.
TCC students are currently being encouraged to apply for the internships by the May 24 deadline. TCC biology professors have been telling biology students about the internships. MESA Director Adrienne Scarcella, who also collaborated on setting up the grant, is making sure that TCC MESA students know about the internship opportunity.
TCC Biology Professor Beccy Stave encourages applicants to think carefully about how they could shape the internship to support their own educational and career goals.
“If you’re working with the Tacoma Tree Foundation, do you want to be in the field, or in the lab, or figuring out how to get more volunteers? Look at the application – it says, which of these things would be a good fit for you?” Stave said.
In addition to the student internships, TCC's biology department will benefit from enhanced curriculum and other opportunities. Over time, Tacoma and other nearby communities will benefit, too. According to WSU’s article, the goal is to teach biology students how to take their learnings and apply them in their communities.