As the summer picks up speed, the Urban Ecology Center is bursting with energy and amazing interns. They have come to share their skills, further fulfill their career ambitions, and connect their communities to nature despite the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the UEC had a total of 17 interns. Five are land steward interns, 11 are summer camp interns, and 1 is a science communication intern. Altogether, the interns helped summer campers reconnect to nature and keep the organization’s mission to help the community.

Famous Wisconsin conservationist, Aldo Leopold was a hunter and fisherman. Not only did these activities provide him with food, they also connected him deeply to the land. In “The Sand County Almanac” he described how draining and channelizing along the Mississippi River wetlands aimed to bring economic growth to the area, but instead left his boyhood marsh “impoverished.” While some may consider fishing a controversial activity, we at the Urban Ecology Center understand that with proper guidance, it can launch a life-long commitment to protecting our local freshwater systems.

I, along with thirty-one other excited individuals, have started our summer as interns with the Urban Ecology Center. We come from diverse backgrounds with different qualifications, and, while we are all pursing different futures, for the entirety of this short summer our paths are molding together as we encourage the growth of ecological knowledge here in the Milwaukee area.

"It’s a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” This Bilbo Baggins quote perfectly sums up my summer as an Urban Ecology Center intern. Before I came here, I had no idea what my summer would have in store. As my internship draws to a close next week, I can honestly say that the experiences and places I was swept off to by this job have been some of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

My first month as an Urban Ecology Center intern is in the books, and while I already feel totally at home here, I still have a lot to learn about the everyday happenings at the Center.

Last week there was a brief lull in activity for myself and the other interns; our official training sessions had ended, and most of the interns were working on refining their lesson plans for the coming Summer Camps they would be assisting with. I used the quiet week to explore some of the activities that happen at the Center every day, all year long.

Summer internships tend to get a pretty bad rap; most people hear the phrase and immediately conjure up images of windowless offices with fluorescent lighting, mind numbing data entry tasks, and endless coffee runs. At the Urban Ecology Center, however, interns do pretty much everything but sit in an office! Over the last two weeks, the Center’s thirty summer interns participated in training and teambuilding activities at all three branches, and we had a blast doing it. Check out these highlights!