Internships are commonly arranged with a variety of organizations such as the Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as with pharmaceutical companies and local veterinary practices. Not all internships are in the Cortland area or even near the student's home town; through Cortland’s special connections, students have studied as far away as England and Belize.
Internships are more and more commonly undertaken by students as a means of applying their coursework in the "real world". Internships also allow students to gain a direct understanding of a potential career choice. Finally, internships often open doors to post graduate training and career opportunities. SUNY Cortland's Biological Sciences Department encourages all of our students to consider an internship and two of our majors require an internship.
Internships in Conservation Biology
Students may choose to do a local, regional, national or international internship. Our students have interned in Cortland at the two offices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the regional offices of the NY Department of Environmental Conservation. Students have also interned overseas in areas including Africa, Belize, and Australia. While at SUNY Cortland, students have many opportunities for directed and independent research, from molecular analyses of genetic diversity to field studies of streams, grasslands, tropical fungi, soil invertebrates, insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals and plants.
Internships in Biomedical Sciences
Students in the Biomedical Sciences may elect to do an internship during the academic year or during a summer. In recent years students have interned at the Cortland Regional Medical Center while still taking classes, but more commonly students set up internships during the summer months For some examples, students have worked and studied in research labs, veterinary clinics, physician offices, pharmacies, pulmonary and cardiac care units.