Forestry internship expands university, grade school students’ natural resources understanding
Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, [email protected]
Contact: Dr. Jason Vogel, 979-845-5580, [email protected]
COLLEGE STATION – University students from across the nation interested in forest science can come to Texas A&M University for a summer of hands-on research and, in turn, take their new knowledge and share it with middle and high school students.
The exchange of information is all a part of an internship offered through the Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation and Adaptation Project, known as PINEMAP, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
The program is administered by Dr. John Seiler and John Kidd from Virginia Tech, who select undergraduate students and match them to graduate students from different participating universities across the southeastern U.S.
It’s a win-win situation, according to Dr. Jason Vogel, assistant professor in Texas A&M’s department of ecosystem science and management and coordinator of the PINEMAP program in College Station.
“The graduate students receive help on their projects and the undergraduate receives a research experience and a generous stipend,” Vogel said.
The PINEMAP Undergraduate Fellowship Program is a collaborative effort among a number of universities: Texas A&M, University of Florida, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State University, Auburn University and the University of Georgia, as well as the U.S. Forest Service and the Texas A&M Forest Service.
In the first two years of the program, more than 17 undergraduate students have participated across the universities,and four of them have been at Texas A&M, Vogel said.
Undergraduates from across the southern U.S. can participate, and Texas A&M students can go to any of the participating universities, he said.
“Once they are selected, they come into a lab where forest science research is taking place and learn scientific methodology. This research, generated by Texas A&M AgriLife Research, is then disseminated to the general public through visits to middle schools, high schools and other groups,” he said. “It helps fulfill the mission of AgriLife by providing the public with information about their world.”
The intern students can present on whatever they are interested in, as long as it deals with natural resources or ecology, Vogel said.
“This is a way to raise interest among young children about natural resources, in particular forests, and their importance to the world,” he said. “Our interns talk about managing natural resources or threats to those resources, as well as ecology in general.”
Additionally, this program trains undergraduate students on hands-on science techniques in laboratories and the presentation of that scientific information to the lay public, Vogel said. The interns present in the College Station/Bryan area, as well as to youth in their hometown or wherever they are attending college.
“We do see this as a very positive program. Our researchers get help with their research and it raises the profile of the university and the natural resources at the same time,” he said.
