By Shane Tedder

(March 24, 2015) — The University of Kentucky Office of Sustainability has partnered with the Student Sustainability Council and the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment (TFISE) to launch a rejuvenated student sustainability internship program. The partnership is offering six paid internships for undergraduate students in any degree program for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Applications are due by April 24.

Three internships will be mentored by the Office of Sustainability and three will be mentored by working groups of the TFISE. All interns will be expected to work up to 10 hours per week and will be paid $10 per hour.

Approximately half of the hours will be spent supporting the work of an existing and related campus initiative, and the remaining time will be focused on developing an independent, student-led project with the help of the university faculty and staff leading the unit or working group that is mentoring the intern.

The three internship programs mentored by the Office of Sustainability are:

·         Energy - Efficiency and Conservation: Intern will assist the university energy engineer with the implementation of energy efficiency and conservation projects and will have the opportunity to assist with data collection and analysis.

·         Waste Reduction - Recycling and Reuse: Intern will assist the university recycling coordinator with a wide variety of waste reduction initiatives including recycling, reuse and composting.

·         Transportation - Buses, Bikes and Boots: Intern will assist Parking and Transportation Services' associate director for transportation and the UK Bicycle Advisory Committee with a wide variety of bicycle related projects, including outreach efforts and infrastructure development.

The TFISE will mentor the following internships through their faculty working groups:

·         Food - KY Food Summit: Intern will work with the Food Systems Initiative faculty and gain experience coordinating academic events, recruitment and advertising, and be encouraged to create an independent research project to help advance the mission of the group.

·         Urban Forest Initiative: Intern will work in partnership with Urban Forest Initiative leaders and other working group members within the Lexington community and will develop an independent project aimed at elevating the visibility and quality of the urban forest in our community.

·         Water Systems - Stormwater Data Management: This internship will support the working group in developing a data management system for long-term monitoring and research projects associated with existing and future campus outdoor laboratories.

For more information on each of these positions and to apply visit http://www.sustainability.uky.edu/internships.