UTRGV student shows how internships open doors to new opportunities

Environmental science senior Deisy Garcia encourages students to gain experience with internships after she encountered first-time opportunities interning at the U.S. Forest Service in Sisters, Oregon. 

Garcia said the internship gave her the opportunity to expand her knowledge about her specification, which is soil science. 

“It … allowed me to have a broader perspective, because, since I’ve been so focused [in soil science], I haven’t really taken the time to, like, pay attention to the flowers, to botany,” she said. 

Garcia said she learned to think beyond just soil because she had the chance to help a graduate student with their project at the Forest Service. 

Although she did not originally intend to apply for the internship, the opportunity brought new experiences into her life, such as camping, going out of state and traveling by plane.

“It was kind of frightening,” Garcia said. “Like, the McAllen airport is small, so I didn’t get lost, but the Dallas one has a train that has to take you around. I had to go on a train to go to a different terminal.”

She also described her experience at the cabin where she stayed during the internship. 

“When you wake up from the cabins, there’s deer walking by,” Garcia said. “Like, you see them all the time.”

Some types of research Garcia contributed to during her internship were animal surveys for the wildlife team, such as those investigating owls, bats and frogs, and invasive species surveys for the botany team. 

“They were the most interesting because it wasn’t everything the same,” Garcia said. 

Other activities, she said, were participating with the archeology team, which examines any fossils or medicinal herbs in the area, and working with the special management team, which conducts search and rescue parties and suicide attempt prevention. 

Engil Pereira, an assistant professor in the School of Earth, Environmental & Marine Sciences who taught Garcia and has worked with her in her other internship at UTRGV, described how the Forest Service has positively affected Garcia. 

“Before, she only knew so much in terms of what we do in our lab, what she has learned from classes,” Pereira said. “But now she knows a lot more and the application of that knowledge in real life.” 

Garcia gave some words of advice to students who are hesitant about applying to internships. 

“If you’re not doing an internship because you’re scared, then you should just do it because in the end of the day, it’s such an experience that no one would ever take it away,” she said. “You’ll learn a lot more … in the internship … than in the class, because that’s how I was learning.”

Jack Kaufold, internship program manager for the UTRGV Career Center, said that each year over 35% of UTRGV students participate in internships.

“This percentage could be higher depending on whether they are pursuing internships as part of internship courses, program requirements, or other factors that depend on their degrees,” Kaufold said. 

Pereira said most students do not participate in internships because they think their lack of experience sets them up for failure. 

“That’s something students also forget to consider,” she said. “You’re there to get the training, not to show your training.”