Internships and Service
Employers are eager to offer internships to students who bring the skills of a Valpo degree to the workplace.
Opportunities by Program
Both meteorology and geography at Valpo offer distinctive ways for students to gain professional experience and apply classroom learning in real-world settings. Explore the options below to see how each program opens doors through internships, fieldwork, and hands-on practice.
Geography
The Valpo geography program strongly encourages students to make use of their skills in a professional setting. In fact, professional experience in the form of either field research or an internship is required for the bachelor of science in geography. With department approval, students earn academic credit for relevant internships, either during the academic year or over the summer months.
Students identify and apply for internships, and geography professors are invaluable resources to help students find appropriate positions and negotiate the application process. The Valpo Career Center, too, is a key asset, providing strategies and advising on finding relevant internships. The Career Center also maintains a database of internship openings and potential cooperative education placements.
Geography-related internships are plentiful and diverse. The recent proliferation of geospatial data from a variety of sources makes competence in Global Information Systems technology extremely attractive to employers in a broad range of fields, and Valpo students have used these and other skills taught by the program to procure enviable internships in recent years.
- Porter County Development and Storm Water Management (GIS)
- Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program, University of Michigan (Urban forestry)
- Indiana Dunes National Park (interpretation, research)
- City of Valparaiso, Indiana (Urban Planning)
- Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission (GIS, Urban Planning, and Transportation Planning)
- Bureau of Land Management, Ely Field Office, Nev. (GIS/GPS)
- Porter County, E-911/Public Safety Office, Valparaiso, Ind. (GIS/GPS)
- Planning Department, City of Portage, Ind. (Urban Planning/GIS)
- Archbold Biological Station, Lake Placid, Fla. (Environmental Management/GIS)
- Valassis Communications, Inc., Livonia, Mich. (Marketing/Business Geographics)
- National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. (Geography Education, Cartography)
- Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., Rantoul, Ill. (Environmental Management)
- Porter County Tourism Board, Chesterton, Ind. (Tourism/Marketing)
- Community Outreach Partnership Center, Valparaiso University, Ind. (Community Planning/GIS)
- Land Use Department, Will County, Joliet, Ill. (Urban Planning)
- Economic Development Department, NIPSCO, Merrillville, Ind. (Community Development/GIS)
- Planning and Growth Management Department, City of Peoria, Ill. (Urban Planning/GIS)
- Gabis Arboretum
- Long Island National Wildlife Refuge, N.Y.
- USGS Denver, Colo.
- Alaska National Forest
Meteorology
Valpo’s meteorology program is a real boon to Northwest Indiana, a region that often faces volatile and dramatic weather conditions. The region, in turn, offers a plethora of opportunities for meteorology students to learn by doing.
Valpo meteorology students also gain experience, both during the academic year and in the summer, through internships. Cooperative placements, which combine paid, professional work with the academic program, are occasionally available as well.
The Valpo Weather Center, with its sophisticated instrumentation, provides a critical service to the community. Municipal officials, as well as the University, rely on the forecasts and weather bulletins issued by the center’s student staff, especially during the seasons affected by thunderstorms and lake-effect snow. Students who staff the center also answer questions from the community.
Student forecasters use their expertise to report severe weather events to Skywarn, a volunteer program of the National Weather Service, and students interested in broadcast meteorology volunteer for the campus TV and radio stations, VUTV and WVUR.
In addition to the everyday work of forecasting, the meteorology honor society hosts an annual Meteorology Field Day, inviting students at local elementary schools to learn about earth and atmospheric science through hands-on experiments, presentations, and videos.
Valpo meteorology students are welcomed as interns, both in Northwest Indiana during the school year and across the country during breaks. Internships, in addition to providing valuable work experience, can be undertaken for academic credit with the approval of the department. Valpo meteorology interns have worked at TV and radio stations, in industry, and with research organizations. Internship locations include:
- ABC News, New York City
- Chesapeake Energy, Chicago
- Scores of television stations throughout the country
- Mt. Washington Observatory, Conway, NH
- Murray and Trettle Weather Forecasting Service, Palatine, IL
- National Climate Data Center, Asheville, NC
- Northwest Airlines, St. Paul, MN
- WSI/United Airlines, Chicago
- Lake and Porter County Emergency Management
- Northwest Indiana Schools
- National Weather Service Offices throughout the United States
- North Dakota Atmospheric Resource Board
- NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
Valpo meteorology students compete nationally for summer Research Experience for Undergraduate positions. These REU programs aim to match students with professional mentors to conduct research on a variety of topics. Students engage in field campaigns and study severe weather, satellite meteorology, climatology, societal impacts of weather, and a multitude of environmental and atmospheric topics. A short list of REUs available to Valpo meteorology students:
University of Rhode Island Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships in Oceanography (SURFO)
The National Weather Center REU (Norman, Oklahoma)
NASA Student Airborne Research Program (SARP)
NSF (search on REU)
Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine
Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS)
Colorado State University CHILL Radar REU
Contact Us
We welcome inquiries from prospective students, fellow researchers, and community members.
Contact the Department Chair: Bharath Ganesh Babu
Administrative Assistant: Zoe Vander Vinne
Staff Meteorologist: Leanne Blind-Doskocil