Interns in the Wild

Through an innovative internship program, young people from Brazil, Mexico, and Quebec spend time in the United States learning such skills as how to map vegetation types, create the right conditions for fish to spawn, and prevent forest fires.

Known as the International Conservation Leadership Initiative, the program was created by the Alcoa corporation’s foundation three years ago as a way for the aluminum producer to help protect the natural resources in the countries in which it operates.

This academic year, 20 interns will spend three months working mainly with agencies of the U.S. Department of the Interior before returning to their countries for an internship with an environmental group, which is partially subsidized by the program. While in the United States, students are assigned to projects that are compatible with the work they will do in their home countries. For example, participants might be sent to the swampy Florida Everglades and then return to Brazil to study the Pantanal, another major wetland.

The Alcoa Foundation, in Pittsburgh, made a three-year grant of $500,000 in 2000 to pay for the program and is considering future support. The Student Conservation Association, in Charlestown, N.H., oversees the program.

Evaluations show that participants emerge with a deepened commitment to studying conservation and shaping environmental policies. “They have an insight into ecology, diversity, policy, and the global and personal possibilities of involvement in the environment,” says Kathleen W. Buechel, the foundation’s president and treasurer. “It changes their life.”

Here, an intern conducts research on fish in the river basins of southeastern Brazil.