Internship Procedures

(Note: this page is a work in progress.)

For trainees beginning to plan their URBAN Internship with a partner organization that is a nonprofit, government entity, or private sector organization (non-academic collaborators), please address the questions below with your host and email your responses to Emily (urban@bu.edu).

  1. Project title: High-level description of project or project theme (short and catchy is preferable)
  2. Partner organization:
  3. Host name and email:
  4. Project overview: Provide a 1 paragraph overview of the urban environmental problem you will be tackling with your partner organization and what you will be doing to address it.
  5. Scope of Work & Deliverable(s): Provide an itemized (or estimated) list of activities you will do to complete your project, including specific final deliverables/products (e.g., reports, briefs, write-ups, presentations, etc.)
  6. URBAN-alignment and urban-relevance: In 2-3 sentences, describe how the project touches biogeoscience and environmental health in an urban system.
  7. Project scope: Please provide the total number of hours planned, the overall timeframe and cadence, and the planned start and end date. Example: I plan to work 120 hours, 8 hrs/week for 12 weeks, starting on June 1 and ending on August 17.
  8. Interaction with partner organization: Describe your working relationship with your partner organization. Will you be working remotely? Are they providing you a desk? Will you have regular meetings?
  9. Funding plan: Please share how you would otherwise be funded during the duration of your internship (e.g., non-service fellowship such as a training grant, research grant, teaching fellowship, etc.).
  10. Advisor Approval: Please state whether or not your faculty advisor has approved your internship plan.

Emily will create an Agreement Letter based on your responses and seek your approval, as well as that of your advisor, before sending it your host for a formal sign-off. Next, before you begin your internship, complete the Pre-internship assessment.

After you complete your URBAN Internship, please address the following items:

First, complete the Post-internship assessment.

Second, email the following for our Internship Impacts page to Emily (urban@bu.edu):

  • Project Title
  • Project Partner
  • Project Summary (200 word maximum). Try using the structure of  Problem. Action. Findings. Impact. if possible.
  • Project Deliverables
  • At least one relevant picture

Please view this page as an opportunity for self-promotion, for example, by including not just deliverables but any other media coverage or documentation, etc. Be sure to check with your internship host before posting anything that might be confidential or proprietary. 

This product page should also be 1) helpful to future URBAN trainees developing their internship, 2) inspiring to prospective URBAN trainees, and 3) useful for potential URBAN partners that want to host trainees. 

Finally, all trainees must make a presentation about their internship experience during either the Fall Intro Workshop or the Spring Symposium.