Become An Intern – Ansonia Nature Center

Internships at the Ansonia Nature Center

Are you looking for college credit? The Ansonia Nature Center has many different types of internships.

For more information about internships, read the internships listed below, and contact Alison at arubelmann@ansoniact.org

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Animal Care Intern

Interact and bond with the Nature Center’s resident animals!

This internship is designed for you to learn the duties and responsibilities of an Animal Curator. Each day, you will be learning about how to best care for each creature. During this internship, you will: feed, clean habitat of, provide habitat enrichment for, and interact with all resident animals at the Ansonia Nature Center. You will be responsible for keeping a data log of each of your interactions in addition to observations you have made. Responsibilities include (but are not limited to): monitoring temperature and humidity in the reptile enclosures, conducting research on our wild residents to make sure they are receiving up-to-date care, helping give wellness exams to the rabbit & guinea pig, and monitoring our mealworm breeding system.

Assistant Events Coordinator

Create and run an event!

During the course of this internship, you will design and implement a fundraising event or festival. Our staff will help you on your journey of discovering how to create a smooth, functioning event pooled mostly from a volunteer base. You may choose to use one of our pre-existing events (Autumn Fest, Earth Day, Creature Parade, etc.) or build up a new event that you believe will financially benefit the Nature Center. Responsibilities include (but are not limited to): contacting exhibitors and vendors; reaching out to the community for donations for a raffle; creating fliers, posters, and other publications advertising the event; contacting newspapers, magazines, websites, and other sources that could potentially publicize our event, and working closely with the Director and Assistant Director to form a unified vision of the festival/event.

Assistant Teacher Naturalist

Help children learn about the natural world!

Children ages 5-11 years come to us every day to learn about the environment. During this internship, you will learn how to engage children with the environment and how to encourage them to seek out natural history knowledge. This internship does require you to have: a bit of background knowledge about the natural sciences and local ecology, experience being outdoors, and a willingness to get your hands & feet dirty! You will work alongside our Education Director or one of our experienced Rangers while you learn how to teach environmental education programs. You will help supervise up to 27 children in an outdoor, nature setting (ie. ponding, hiking, etc.); manage children in an indoor, classroom setting and assist with curriculum/program development (when needed).

Landscape Design — Gardening & Landscape Design

Design a native landscape!

Are you a horticulture student looking to transform a landscape? The Ansonia Nature Center has over 150 acres of habitat–woodland, wetland, field, stream, and more! We have many areas of the property that we are looking to transform. During this internship, you would help restore an area overcome by invasives back to its original native plant glory. Our property was once a dairy farm, so there are pieces of our property that are full of autumn olive, Japanese honeysuckle, oriental bittersweet, and multifloral rose. These areas need to be cleared and replanted, but first there needs to be a plan in place–What will we plant? Where? How will we clear the land? When? Your internship will involve all of these steps and more. This internship has the potential to bring back rare wildlife! Are you up for the challenge?

Marketing and Publicity Specialist

Bring people to the Ansonia Nature Center!

The Ansonia Nature Center has been here for over 40 years, but many members of our community have no idea we exist! We are looking for someone who will reach out to locals both in our town and region. This can include (but is not limited to): contacting local papers about our events/programs; updating pressbooks; optimizing our website to perform better on search engines like Google; and making physical fliers in Microsoft Publisher & contacting local businesses about displaying them in their shop fronts. If you are interested in some or all of these activities, contact us and we will set up an internship personalized to fit your needs.

Social Media Specialist

Help the Nature Center be seen!

Do you have experience using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other popular social media sites? We’re looking for someone to help increase our exposure and to help us gain more followers online. Knowledge of natural history and science–particularly local natural history and science–is a plus, but we can help fill in any holes in your knowledge. During this internship, you will be responsible for updating all of the ANC’s social media profiles with recent photos of: events, programs, and sightings that have taken place at the ANC. You will also interact with followers of the ANC’s social media presence in a positive way. This internship requires the intern to consistently touch base with the Director/Assistant Director so they are aware of ANC’s social media presence.

Personalized Internship

Need a different style of internship?