2026 Internship Program
2025 Interns visiting coal mine reclamation site with Maryland Bureau of Mines staff. Photo by Maria Hite Media.
The application period for the 2026 program will open on Monday, November 24, 2025. A link to the online application will be available here. Until then, please contact Rhonda Schwinabart at 301-689-7102 or rschwinabart@umces.edu with any internship-related questions.
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Summer 2025 Internship Program
The 2025 Appalachian Laboratory Summer Internship Program was made possible through funding from the following:
Thank you to our funders for making this experience possible for our interns!
Summer 2025 Intern Seminar
Lightning Talk Seminar by Jason Haley, Maria Hite, Sarah Beckman, Ty Kashporenko and Nathaniel Poulin
Summer 2025 Interns:
Summer 2025 Interns (front row, left to right): Jason Haley and Ty Kashporenko; Back row, left to right: Nathaniel Poulin, Sarah Heckman, and Maria Hite
Jason Haley (Frostburg State University- Geography/Spanish)
Project: Global Nitrogen Innovation Center for Clean Energy and the Environment (NICCEE)
Mentor: Dr. Sarah Garvey
Develop an immersive virtual reality (VR) science communication tool that simulates a farm with a green ammonia installation. The VR experience will include interactive information bubbles to provide users with content about the system's components, sustainable nitrogen management, and environmental impacts. This project is ideal for students with skills in VR development, 3D modeling, or user experience design.
Sarah Heckman (Garrett College- Natural Resources and Wildlife Technology)
Project: Fire Ecology
Mentor: Sarah Bomar
This project examines how altered fire regimes affect wildfire risk and understory plant communities in the Eastern mid-Atlantic forests. This project includes both office and field work. The balance of these work types will depend on the interest and expertise of the intern chosen. Computational work will focus on image processing, plant identification, and remote sensing data analysis. Field work will include vegetation and fire fuel load surveys in Western Maryland.
Maria Hite (Frostburg State University- Emerging Media)
Project: AL Communications- Video Library
Mentor: Rhonda Schwinabart
Intern will assist in creating library of short video clips related to various research topics and other subjects (STEM, importance of science, etc.) for use on social media and in other communications platforms. Project will involve storyboarding with Coordinator of External Relations, cataloguing and editing existing content, and filming new content as needed. Intern will have the opportunity to participate in other communications activities based on interest and career goals.
Ty Kashporenko (Frostburg State University- Biochemistry/Molecular Biology)
Nathaniel Poulin (Frostburg State University- Biology)
Project: Stable Isotopes and Bird Populations
Mentor: Nicole Ibrahim
Understanding the movement and connectivity of bird populations is critical for effective conservation, particularly in understudied regions like Central Asia. The student will contribute to research investigating several bird species' migratory patterns and population origins using stable isotope analysis. Working primarily in the lab, the student will prepare and analyze feather samples collected from Kazakhstan, and then perform statistical and geospatial analyses of the resulting data. This project will provide valuable insights into the ecology of these species and directly support the dissertation research of a Ph.D. student.
Professional Development Activities
Summer 2024 Internship Experiences
In addition to their research or project-related work, interns also participate in professional development activities, including field trips to research facilities, workshops, and networking opportunities. Activities for this summer include field trips to the Powdermill Avian Research Center and the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology and workshops on topics such as science communication and pursuing graduate school.
Past Summer Research Internship Seminars
Summer 2024 Internship Seminar
Recording of Intern Seminar August 2023
Recording of Intern Seminar August 2022
Why Complete a Research Internship
Hear what past interns have to say about the impact their Appalachian Laboratory internships had on them and their future plans.
Scott McKinstry, Appalachian Laboratory intern, summer 2019
Richard Johnson, Appalachian Laboratory intern, summer 2021
Meet our past interns
Since 2018, twenty-five (25) undergraduate students have completed internships at the Appalachian Laboratory. Visit our past internships webpage to learn more about these students and their experiences at the Lab.