Interns in the community
How can a small liberal arts college remain small but seem so large at the same time? You make friends, share the work, and build alliances. COA has spent the last 50 years building alliances in and outside of Maine that benefit the entire COA and Mount Desert Island communities. We are small but we are not isolated. Since our founding, COA has hosted everything from the Maine Poets Festival to the International Conference of the Society for Human Ecology. Some COA students travel all over the world pursuing their educational goals while others take advantage of opportunities closer to home. The spirit of human ecology animates and connects all things at COA, and with each new incoming class the dynamic impact of new faces, new work, and new alliances grows exponentially.
From left: Heidi Leighton from the Department of Marine Resources, technician Tessa Huston, Scientists in Parks intern Anna Lee, and COA intern Sophie Chivers ’24.
“I see unpaid internships as a social justice problem, as a diversity, equity, and inclusion problem,” says Mitchell and Emily Rales Chair in Ecology Chris Petersen.
“A student should not have to make a judgment call between paying rent or having an internship that advances their career aspirations.”
College of the Atlantic requires internships of all its students in order for them to graduate. Students find a lot of internship positions at nonprofit organizations. Most nonprofits are small and underfunded; in order to manage their staffing, they rely on college students willing to do unpaid (or underpaid) labor. The ability to work for little or no money is an option for some students; however, the limited finances of many college students make unpaid internships impractical—if not outright impossible. Petersen and former development officer Kristina Swanson put their heads together and wrote a grant proposal to help support both COA students and local Downeast Maine nonprofits that rely on student labor. The Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation funded the grant and, thus, the COA Works Downeast project was born.
COA Works Downeast aims to strengthen the relationships between students and the varied and vibrant nonprofit communities of Hancock and Washington counties. The grant works to help provide half the money for a paid internship while the nonprofit puts up the other half. Petersen reached out to his COA colleagues who helped put together a list of over 40 local organizations that could benefit from this partnership. One such organization, Mount Desert 365, works on housing and promoting sustainable, year-round residential communities in the Town of Mount Desert. For Cali Martinez ’22, who has been working on sustainability and housing projects on MDI, this was the perfect match. Martinez writes, “I am most proud of the sustainable building and construction criteria I created for Mount Desert 365. I learned so much about building methods and materials and how to balance sustainability with costs. My internship included a lot of technical aspects like building codes, standards, and certifications, but it also included an understanding of the community implications of each decision.” Kathy Miller, executive director of Mount Desert 365, was impressed with the new program. “We are grateful to COA and the Sprague Foundation for making this internship possible and creating the connections that brought Cali to our office. Our deepening relationship with College of the Atlantic is an important part of our mission to strengthen our island community, and we look forward to many years ahead working together.”
MD365 staff, from left: Mollie Seyffer, Cali Martinez ’22, Eloise Schultz ’16, and executive director Kathy Miller.
With 350 students from 40 states and 45 countries, College of the Atlantic plays a significant role in the social and economic fabric of Downeast Maine. On campus students help manage several historic gardens, the George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History, Bateau Press, and the Ethel H. Blum Gallery. Off campus, students conduct marine mammal and seabird research on Great Duck Island and Mount Desert Rock, work on COA Beech Hill & Peggy Rockefeller farms, and do solar assessments for area businesses.
This past COVID-challenged year, Jill Barlow-Kelley, director of internships and career services, used the grant to help fund student internships at Open Table MDI, Schoodic Institute, Woodlawn Museum, Artwaves, Mount Desert 365, and the Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary. According to Barlow-Kelley, “This grant allowed six students to be paid for their summer internship and gain experiences in nonprofit management, development, community services, and environmental education.”
Ideally, Petersen would like to see the program expand. “It would be ideal to be able to raise money for an internship fund where, instead of going to nonprofits and and asking, ‘Do you want an intern,’ we’d actually help students look for places that are doing exciting work in their field, then through this newly created internship fund at COA, the entire internship would be financially covered.” Shawn Keeley ’00, dean of institutional advancement, is excited about this, faculty is excited about this, and Petersen is excited about this. “We want these internships—these opportunities—available for all of our students,” he says. And, yes, this is good DEI policy but, according to Petersen, “Good DEI policy is just good policy.”
