GPSI Webinar Series - Q & A with Environmental Studies graduate student

Line your horse up, get ready to go.

Alright, Yep, here they come. Oh yes.

Alright well as everyones joining in I will do a quick introduction on myself so welcome everyone to our final web and R of this semester. I'm sure will be doing more next semester 'cause these have been great to catch up with our interns, but this is our final one of the semester and my name is Myra Kaufman. I'm the assistant director for the Office of Graduate Intern programs at the University of Illinois, Springfield and today we're going to be talking about the Graduate Public Service Intern program and will also be talking with a current intern.

Angie, on her experience, is going through the program as well as being an environmental science graduate student. So with that, Angie, if you want to say hi and do a quick introduction real quick.

Sure hi everybody. Angie Quiroga an I'm an international student. I'm from Bogota Colombia and as Myra said before I joined a year ago to the Environmental Science program and I came here basically because of the graduate Public Service internship program. So I'm excited to share a little bit more later on about it.

Yeah, thank you Ann in the chat today. We do have Anna Bradford. She's the international admission Counselor for UAS and we have Vivian Wesley who's an admission counselor for UAS. So if you have any admission specific questions, those two would be more than happy to answer those for you in the chat. If you come up with any questions as we go through GPS, I related or environmental science related or just anything else you'd like to ask us.

Angie and I would be more than happy to answer your questions as well. So with that we will go ahead and get started. So I first wanted to address the UAS graduate programs that we have to offer, because UAS does currently have right around 20 programs for students to pursue a Masters degree in, and I have listed those here as well as added OL next to the programs that are offered entirely on line as well. So these programs are both all of these programs, with the exception of education, are both offered on ground an on line.

Education is currently only offered online, so the cool thing about doing these programs is if you are a fan of online learning and you like to continue that, you can do that with a certain certain number of our programs, so that is always very helpful. Angie is currently in the Environmental Science Masters program. The program will be discussing today the Graduate Public Service Intern program. Accepts students from all different majors so you don't have to be in a certain degree program to participate.

In our intern program.

So with that, we'll go into some explanation what the program is.

So the Graduate public Service Intern program is a paid internship with an Illinois State government agency. And recently we began exploring different avenues as well. So we also placed graduate students in associations and nonprofit organizations as well. So you're not necessarily just going to specifically only have the option of a state government agency, although that is where the majority of our students are placed. But we do have placements in other public service areas, so we like to say that our internship program is real world work experience and we truly believe that.

And we believe that our students get that real world work experience as a graduate student here at UAS. Doing this program so, you know, you're not just going to be sitting at a desk, reading emails, answering phone calls, you know stuffing envelopes. You're actually going to be for a lot of students doing the work and influencing new rules and new, policy's or new initiatives. You're going to be in the thick of it, so that's what makes this program unique. As you know, it's not just kind of that administrative type.

Internship. You're really getting that experience and I'm sure Angie can speak to that in a little bit.

Our part time out we require part time hours during the school year, meaning you only have to work 20 hours while you're going to school from August to May, which makes it very, very manageable for students to do their work as well as homework. So it kind of gives them some free time in order to get class work done, 'cause that is number one priority. But we do have our students working full time in the summer, so that's their chance to kind of get fully immersed within their agencies and kind of feel what it's really like to be.

A full time employee, you know your coworkers depend on you for certain things because they expect you to be there when they're there and working full time just like they are. So for students who haven't had full-time work experience, this is phenomenal to have on a resume. But it's also just good to kind of meet everyone that you can get those networking connections and really have a full kind of internship experience with both part time and full-time work. I mentioned networking connections, but I do want to re emphasize their huge, especially if you're wanting to go into.

The field in which you're working. So like I mentioned, we are public service intern program, so majority of the networking connections you're going to be making our through public sector. But sometimes the people that you meet there could connect you to private sector if that's more what you're preferring to do, but the networking connections that you get are huge and just in terms of like your supervisor can also be kind of seen as a mentor as well to help guide you to different places or different career avenues that you may not have been aware of.

And one unique thing about the GPS I program is that we do offer placements in both Chicago and Springfield. So just this past summer we were able to open up placements in Chicago and we're very excited about that. The placements in Chicago, the only extra requirement for them is that you must be enrolled in one of those fully online Masters programs. So environmental Science is an option to be fully on line. If you would like to. Students can live and work in the Chicago area while doing all of their coursework.

On line majority of our interns are still in Springfield, but we just wanted to have that option available for students because we saw that there were students living in Chicago and we had agencies in Chicago, so why not put the two together so we're continuing to grow that and we hire for positions for Chicago twice a year, so just always be on the lookout for when we're hiring for that.

So the benefits of this program included 22 hour tuition waiver per academic year. Meaning if you're with us for a general two year Masters program, you could get that amount of tuition waiver for both years that you're with us in the program, which would essentially cover your tuition fully as long as you took within the 22 hours each academic year, your tuition would be covered. We give a $500 fee waiver, so that includes that portions it out $250 each fall and spring that you're with us in the program.

So of course that doesn't cover all fees. Students do still have to pay some fees, but it does help offset those costs somewhat.

We give a professional Development Fund of $300.00 so some students will use that to attend conferences. Subscribe to scholarly journals, purchase materials for their internship or their coursework, or really anything like that. I've noticed specifically with environmental science students, some of them they'll request like Waiters, you know, if they're working at the Department of Natural Resources, Waiters, or hard hats, or really any type of other material you may need for being in the field so you can use your professional development money for that.

And then our stipends are listed down below as well. So $1200 per month will be what you'll be paid during the part time hours. So from August to May and then $2400 is what you'll be paid during the summer each month of the summer. So I do always like to point out that that is pre tax so you aren't necessarily going to specifically see those dollar amounts come to your bank account because of course taxes have to get involved, but that's our baseline, so that's what we work off of for whenever we're paying our students so.

With that I will go ahead and move on to the Q&A with Angie, and I do see some questions are going through the chat, so we will address any big questions that Anna and Vivian cannot answer at the very very end. So Angie, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, including your placement site in your title? I know I have it here, but it always sounds good coming out of your mouth.

We sure so I saw the same before my international student that, you know, just recently a year ago come to Springfield and I ended up applying. It was very interesting because I found Myra like you know, college fair. I had my undergrad in the US as well, so it is very difficult for international students to get funded for a graduate program, specifically an.

We usually have to pay extra fees or pay a little bit more than the typical like resident or US. It is then so it is very challenging for sure to find a graduate program, but my hug me about it and I was like, actually I will take a look into it. I ended up applying and it turned out into a internship position and I ended up in the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which is the agency that regulates all the environmental.

He shows old water, land, air pollution. All these things in the state of Illinois, and particularly I mean the groundwater section where we work with the all the water that comes from wells and.

You know it's crazy because this agency is huge. It has more than 500 employees an I never thought there is going to be so many people working for all these different fields so you know there is like surface water there is groundwater that is open water so it is a lot and so my little like section it was the groundwater which I love because it's a big deal we we work with water all the water that residents drink in Illinois so.

Basically, in my tire East Stars water protection in turn.

Great yeah I love how you you mentioned you weren't expecting so many people, but it takes a lot to I guess. Run a state environmental agency. So yeah, so that's kind of part of the networking you know is just the the wide variety of people that you meet. You know not just in your water division but also in land and every all the other places that you mentioned. Yeah I love that Angie and I actually met at a college fair.

Two falls ago it had to have been an I was. I was so excited to talk to her. She was one of the only students I talked to that day. But she was graduating in December and I was like, oh, she's going to get something else she'll she won't Remember Me. You know, for next fall and she did and I was so glad to see her. So yeah, I know if you if you get invited to any college fairs, definitely recommend you attend and then talk to the representatives there 'cause it could lead to something great.

So what led you to pursue a graduate degree and then a graduate degree at UAS?

Yeah, so I found myself a little struggling a little bit, especially after I graduated with my biology degree. I was very confused. I wasn't sure why I would do what to do next.

A lot of places, a lot of entry level job positions require you to have experience, which I didn't have, so I ended up taking a semester of after I graduated and I did an internship. I took an internship in North Carolina. I work for a nonprofit organization in conservation work and after that I was like you know what I need more. I notice that even in the job or if I wanted to like move on into like.

Better positions they will ask me for geographic information systems, which is a specific stuff where that is used in Environmental Protection. We will ask me for a specific little things and I was like maybe I should like work on my education a little bit more so I can, like you know, target those specific jobs that I really want and then I remember Myra and I was like I'm going to check out this place. I'm going to check out UISI actually apply to.

Other universities in Amsterdam, almost applying in Oregon, South Korea.

And there are both applying in New York, but best choice was hearing you. Yes, because the opportunity to have work experience, real work experience while you're doing your Masters. It's very unique, not are not. Many programs have this opportunity of you studying and getting work experience at the same time. Usually the legislative 1st and then you need to figure out your work experience later. That's already four years of your life and it's just you know we're getting old.

So it's very nice that the program itself had the opportunity to do it.

At the same time, and like I, I was like, let me give it a try and the most important thing though, was the reason why big UI is was because they were open for international students. I remember I told Myra that she told me, hey, you want to join to Graduate School and I was like, Oh yes I would love to but I don't have money to pay and she's like no it's OK. We got like funding opportunities and I was like no, no no I am international. I already know I don't apply to us.

All these things and she's like you don't need to be anyone you kind of fly. You know anybody welcome. So I was like wow, this is a good opportunity and that's why. Basically I ended up speaking, yeah.

Oh yeah, that makes me so happy.

So aside from the funding opportunity, what attracted you to the GPS AI program?

My dream has always been able to work in a governmental agency. I had the opportunity to work in a nonprofit and I liked it, but I notice that like usually people that work in nonprofits have also background experience in the governmental area.

Government at the end of the day makes decisions and if you want to make a change in the world, you should be able to participate in these organizations that are the ones that make decisions. And if you want to see change, you need to participate in that. So my target was to focus on the governmental agencies. When I heard I could do my internship in a Environmental Protection Agency, the from the state, and that was like $1,000,000 things here.

I especially because in the United States there is a lot of regulations that do not allow international students to participate in governmental organization. So this program is a good way to at least learn how the government work. And you know, just get that the experience that you need for like a future career or even to continue in that agency. So was mostly that the fact that I always wanted to work in a government.

Agency, but because of my background international background, I wasn't allowed to apply, even though this opportunity opened a lot of doors and not only not only indoors, but like the opportunity to meet a lot of people that could help you in the future.

Yeah yeah, I agree so and this is kind of a question that Jennifer put in the chat a little bit too, but it's actually almost like Jennifer's reading or my questions, but could you tell us a little bit about what you do in your internship? An kind of what a typical day looks like, and then in addition, adding on Jennifer's question, what's your favorite part of your internship?

Yeah, for sure. Thank you for the question. So at the beginning it was very stressful. I was very scared because I am in a new place. I don't understand any regulation. I come from different backgrounds. Don't know how water issues are handled here. the EPA has a lot of history was one of the the most men that were created.

Protection of the environment in 1970. So it's been a while, so Illinois was one, was the first agency Environmental Protection Agency created before the federal agency in the United States. So Illinois had way more history than the typical federal, you know, protection in. So it was very stressful in the beginning. I used to go to the office. I will go and see it and they will give me this bunch of documents and they were like OK.

You need to read. You need to understand how the organization works. You need to understand our history. All the regulations, all that we do. So it was very overwhelming in the beginning because there is a lot of context that I don't understand. They will take me to meetings and always sitting quiet in the corner. I look at all these people, very knowledgeable people. They will talk about very technical things and I'm like, am I supposed to say something?

Do I just look I don't know, but with time I got used to it. I started learning more the all the programs at the agency has and and with time they were giving me my supervisor were giving me like new assignments, new projects, getting more involved with the team. So a typical day for me will look like starting at 8:30 AM. First thing to do would be checked the computer email is extremely important and there is a lot of people that will contact you.

Um, one of the most important task I have to do deals with the Office of Emergency response, which basically anytime there is a spill of any like fuel or engine oils or anything like this, like a car accident or like a problem in a in a company or something happen Enix close to a water area or is close to a water well.

And either water could get contaminated. I am the one that has to inform all the higher OPS all the people. Illinois Department of Public Health, everybody and even their water treatment facilities that are in the area and need to tell them like a hey watch out. There was a spill. There could be contamination in the water and then you need to take further actions either not notify the residents that the water might be contaminated.

To boil the water to don't drink the water, or you know, or just to apply more treatment in the water before standard, because there was a spill. So this is, I feel very, very happy doing this job because I feel like I am helping people. I'm letting them hey, don't drink. This water is contaminated. So is one of the most important things and my favorite to be honest.

The other one is the permit we high review permit, so every time there is a new opportunity to drill a well to take water out.

They send their laboratory results to me and I am the one that has to review and make sure the contaminants in the water do not exceed the limitations that the organization already stated, right? So let's say arsenic is that as a toxic substance, an if the arsenic is above the limit, I need to notify van to tell you cannot allow this permit to go ahead or to operate because we got any issue and.

If we don't, it's such a. It's such a nice work because you you can make decisions in like a micro level and say no, you cannot do this because there is contamination in the water. We have people that could die from this could get sick. So you can say like no don't do it.

Yeah it is busy. We got a lunch break. I hang out with the interns that was before covid. Of course it was nice because we got a big team in the EPA. Alot of interns will hang out. We cannot catch up with each other. What are they doing? What other project?

Nice to be surrounded with like these higher apps, you always learn something new every single day, not only in your major or your career, but in your like personal life. I had to go to give a talk at representing the Environmental Protection Agency in a conference and I was I hate the tag in public and especially as an international. Your English is not the best you have. You know you're not sure.

And I had to do it and it helped me to develop my fear. You know, to erase that and to feel more comfortable talking to people about what I do. So that's kind of like a date.

Yeah, great and it sounds like you know we don't like to say just an intern, but it sounds like as an intern you have a lot of you know power in what you're doing and you know you can make your decisions and you can give presentations and you you kind of come into the comfortable iti of being an expert in your topic area. So that's I think a huge benefit of.

Of what you're doing, and I think one thing that comes from this program to is confidence. Because you are learning to be the person that others rely on to answer certain questions or address certain issues or things like that. So yeah, I think I think your experience has been great so far. So Speaking of that, how does your placement contribute to what you're learning in the classroom or in your future career?

Um, so it is. It is crazy because if I am planning to stay longer in the United States and work for any company here and agency, I got to learn a lot of background history about how things work in here. Specially water issues. What is there to prevent a lot of companies need to submit requests or permits to the state to get approval to do anything? So I have that background already.

I can tell them OK, you make sure do this. Make sure you do that.

And not only like classroom about like an AI, personal career, future career, having background experience, working with the government is heavy. Alot of procurious Wanda people that have background in the government. It is our responsibility. It is big deal. Not everybody has the chance to work in the government. So every time if you're trying to find a new place or or any other job.

They would really appreciate that background in the governmentally.

Yeah, I agree, it's such a unique experience that you know not a lot of students think they should have Raven. Consider going into a career in government or public service so I think for the first our students to have that ability is just just great so.

As an international student, how do you feel your education and or your internship is preparing you to enter the US workforce or an international workforce?

Odd, well, basically I'll say.

I don't have a skills. You learn a lot of things. You learn how the database, what type of database the government uses, what type of information they have. If you want to plan to work in the government in the United States, you can do so. I haven't seen a lot of interns that ended up working in the agency they started with, so that's that's one of the best benefits of this program that opens up opportunities for you to learn. And once you once you try to apply for the job in that same.

Agency you have a little bit of advantage compared to everybody else because you already work there and they would prefer somebody that already knows how the system works than two. Train somebody new. So that is one of the most important things to focus on, and then if you want to work in an internal international agency or something like that. As I was saying they a lot of the play, a lot of the job opportunities that I was looking at that will ask like we want experience with nonprofit an.

Governmental agency, because these are these organisms. These organizations, they are. They create programs for the community. So basically all the background or that you learn only also, like you have to work in groups as a team, you have to work individual. All these things are public speaking. All the things I was saying, oh even you can learn software like I'm working on our Arcgis.

Why do some of the responses in the emails for like letting people where the location of the spill was? Where are the wells? Where is the water I have to do some geographic information system work so you can learn a lot of things and these are valuable valuable skills personal in career skills that are wanted right now. So that is I'm feeling very comfortable to be honest after I graduate, I know I will find a job.

Or, you know, you will have a master. You will have your experience and you have all the skills you learn. So it's a matter of like very I felt very confident. So it will help a lot. I feel that.

Good, good and so just my last question before we move on to any questions in the chat. What is your advice to a student seeking a graduate degree or graduate internship and then any specific advice for international students? 'cause I know we have a couple on the call today.

Yeah, so I feel like my advice would be prepared.

And don't get scared. I as I was saying the first time I automatically didn't even let Myra talk. I told her no, I know I'm international. An I cannot apply for five star or scholarships with the University. So she's like, no listen. Please let me finish. So yeah, be open to listen. There are a lot of opportunities over there like this one and then second prepare. I know the application process is a little bit extensive for the graduate public service.

Internship, but it's worth it.

It also helps you to identify their skills. You have an basically how to sell yourself in the market, so it's it's a good opportunity. Don't be scared given a try and The thing is like the good thing about this program. Is that even if you are not able to make it in the first round, have like 3 rounds you can go second round. You can go there around. They do it like in the spring. They do it in the fall like come on, they do it all the time so do not feel afraid afraid to.

Play A to fail. They will always have opportunities open, so that's something that like for me. Help me too, cannot relax, I'm not OK. It's OK if I don't get in the first time. I will try the second time.

And prepare ahead for sure is a long process. A lot of questions if you're called for an interview. Make sure you review the organization. Make sure you know you read specifically the description of the job you will like, so just so you're happy with what you are choosing.

And as international students I will say.

Basically, make sure you you know.

What what do you want? I had like in the beginning?

Some issues when I was trying to select the program there were my program hard environmental studies is switched to environmental science to where she was kind of confusing. I was worried that I was not applying the right way and I ask questions to make sure you ask question. If you don't know very well, ask there. You're not going to lose anything by asking, so I know even with Myra, I know they know me so much. I will go to the office all the time. Hey had this issue. Hey, I don't know these. Hey, can you help me with that?

So I think my advice is that just ask questions if you're not sure if you're going the right way or if you need some help. So that's my advice and just believe in yourself the fact you're international doesn't mean that it's going to be difficult, it's open for everybody so.

Yeah, that's a great point, and that's a great segue into our application process. So to quickly go over this for you all. So we do require that you fill out an application and the first step in that is to apply to a graduate program. So of course Angie is environmental science, but as again I mentioned, we do have right around 19 other programs to look into as well. So if environmental science isn't necessarily your career track, that's perfectly fine. We do cover the full gambit of.

Programs here, so your first step is to pick a program, and while you're online applying for the program, you'll get a box that that asks if you want to be considered for GPS I opportunities, and if you select yes, then that will automatically populate your application on to your profile so that you can fill that out. So you'll fill that out. It is 7 questions, so it does take a little bit of thought. You know, we like our students to kind of contemplate on why they're applying and the reasons behind.

Their motivations behind applying, but you also upload a resume and then we require 3 letters of recommendation and they can be either directly uploaded by your recommenders or emailed to the Registrar's office to be added to your application. International students. We do require an F1B visa to be on file for consideration an the minimum GPA for all students is a 2.5 on a 4.0 scale, so that's the requirements. They're pretty straightforward.

As Angie mentioned though, we are pretty much hiring year round, so it just kind of depends on the time of year in which you're entering school. On the next round that you'll want to shoot for. So I do have our deadlines listed in the bottom right hand corner, so the next deadline that GPS I is approaching is November 15th and that is for our January February start. So if you're wanting to start something either this January, February or next January or February, always try to apply before.

Mid November, usually that's when we're going to be reviewing applications and then for our biggest round of hiring will be doing that in May. The deadlines May 1st and positions would start in August. An if you miss that one we have another round that occurs mid fall, so we're constantly hiring and the reason for that being we always have agencies that are needing interns and we always have students graduating, so it's a constant new process of bringing on new interns and.

Continuing our current interns and things like that, so with that I will go ahead an go to some questions. I'm going to scroll up so I don't miss any of the ones that I didn't get in the beginning.

Ah.

Possibilities of securing an internship in spring 21 are available, so as long as you filled out an application and have applied by November 15th, you should be good and you'll be hearing from me. If your application is fully complete. But if you ever want to ask any questions about your application, you can always email me as well.

Um?

Vivian answered that question.

Logan asked how likely is it for state agencies like I DNR IPA to contact slash interview someone for GPS I position. Are they super competitive or do people that apply typically have a good shot of getting contact about a particular internship? That's a great question, an it depends on a couple things. It depends on the time of year. You know if you're doing are big may round then the chances are much greater because there are more agencies hiring. If you're doing a smaller round like the spring or the.

August 1 like we call them late round in spring round if you're doing one of those, there tends to be slightly fewer agencies interviewing, but there are still certainly positions available, so there's not necessarily a likelihood I can give you. But I do say to students that as long as you have a good resume, good application, and the agencies are there and hiring your chances of getting something are generally pretty good, especially with environmental science students, we typically have a pretty high placement rate for those students.

Just because DNR and EPA are some of our longest standing agencies that we've been partnering with. In fact, the director of the program worked at the Illinois EPA for. I'm not sure the exact year, maybe around 30 ish years she'll let me know later, but right around there so we have a great partnership with both of those agencies and they continuously come in for new interns each year. So specifically for this spring round, I know we have maybe.

I would say maybe three to five placements at DNR and EPA for this coming spring, but again, it always just depends on time of year so.

Um?

Next question over um. Jennifer Angie. I don't know if you see this one in the chat. Do you do water testing for the chemicals like the arsenic you mentioned? And did you present on a certain topic at the conference or just an overview of what you've done? Is an intern?

Yeah so.

And there is actually opportunities if you want to work directly with the lab. I do not directly analyze the samples, I make sure they don't or go over the limit. So I I'm more like a in the intermediated between the lab and the legal stuff, so I make sure that results that come from the lab meet the requirements. Before saying yes, you can go ahead and do it, but I know that it.

EPA has also the laboratory setting, and they also have opportunities to work directly with the laboratory. As I was mentioning before, the organization is huge and everything is divided in little sections, so there is the section for the laboratory. There is also toxicology.

It is very very broad. I particularly wanted to work with water, especially drinking water systems and portable water. So I had already experienced testing water and doing a sampling and all these things in a laboratory setting. So I wanted to learn more of the actual work like Regulation, thing done for water system and things like that. So that's why I picked that one. But I do not directly work on analyzing this.

Samples they do have, although the option for you to like join the laboratory setting once you're invited to do the interview, and if you pick, do the one for the laboratory. That will tell you what is basically the description of your internship and you will be most likely analyzing samples and using. I don't know chromatography and all these things, so yeah, because I do have friends that work just in the lab so that all the in the lab they don't need to re log into the computer like I do.

But they work in the lab. Fortunately though, this time working in the computer has been very beneficial to me. Becausw with Chobit we have we can work from home, but like my friends that work in the laboratory, they have all the time in the laboratory. So yeah.

These circumstances are difficult to, you know, organize, but yeah, I don't directly work with matter practically.

And when you presented at that conference, was it a certain topic or was it something you were doing in your internship?

Yep, thank you for catching that. I was doing winter last year and we were actually giving a presentation on how salt.

Sodium will affect life, an organisms and the environment, and water and people. The health of people because you know, in here in the United States, you know there is. They put salt on the roads to Mail this now and all these things. So we're basically giving a talk to a conference for like the people that actually put the salt. So it was very challenging because we basically said you guys are doing this to the environment. So be careful. How much soldier put in all these things.

So that was the topic. Basically like the effects of sodium in the environment during the winter.

Wow, yeah that would be a. That's what we call a tough crowd. I bet. Wow so another question for you in the chat is how have your time management skills been affected through your Masters experience? Are you working on a thesis and what is your advice to be able to handle your day-to-day workload?

That is a very good good question. I Fortunately I used to be a student athlete before, so I had the opportunity to manage my time very well. I had a schedule with me at all times, an every single minute was very important, so I initially wanted to do a thesis. However, I notice that the internship program goes also full time during the summer and is very hard to collect.

Data if you're going to do a thesis with the new data you're trying to collect is a little bit challenging to do it because you're going to be working full time 40 hours per week. That will give you only weekends to collect data, so I didn't want to do like a like a rush PCs. Kind of like, not good data or things like that, so I decided not to do the thesis option, but the University provides multiple options. So for the graduation so.

I'm currently doing the Capstone project, which is basically you create your project. You can do it with the agency you are working on and you are going to present that and it's going to be just your project. You have to go from zero and basically not like a thesis, but it's still it's. It's something you are doing on your own along with the agency, which is kind of nice because you can also show that while you're trying to apply for jobs after you graduate, you say I did this on my own. I partner up with this.

Agency and I was doing all this, so that's not too bad. You can also do like approach a graduate project which allows you to collect data to in your own project a capstone project. You can also collect data if you're more interested in doing like a kind of thesis oriented, but you don't have the full time to do it. So basically for the Capstone project requirement is that you need to have an internship, so this is a good opportunity for interns that are in an agency because.

You don't need to worry about anything, you just need to tell your supervisor you are going to do a project and it's very easy to make it happen, especially when you're working full time during the summer in part time with school and all these things.

It has been a little challenging for sure in the beginning because as you're coming back to school, you're trying to get used to this new system. Masters is very different than undergrad. Professors give you more work to do, like on your own instead of like giving you the classes is more like you try to come up with your questions and do it on your own. It was a little bit different the system, but once you get used to it, it's it's very good. You get used to easily.

Ann, basically I'm all my best friend is my calendar. To be honest, is putting OK. I have this coming up today. Tomorrow. I don't work, for example because it's a holiday so it's just I. Basically that's how I manage my time, try to not procrastinate too much and.

You know, get the job done when it's supposed to be done so.

Yeah, that's great advice. I know before everyone got on we were just talking about Angie and I met this morning and then she did a little work and then I checked in on her work and she was all done. So she was like yeah I just got it done so that I could be free for this. So yeah, Graduate School I think is synonymous with the word time management. Definitely and then adding an internship there is.

Another factor, but we always tell her students that you are students first, you know, and that's the most important thing. Of course, internship obligations are important too, but generally I think our supervisors in our mentors are very understanding of students needing to do homework. Needing to do, you know, study for tests and things like that. So I think they can be pretty flexible as long as you're you know, good employee and you're getting your work done for them and you're there when you say you're going to be there. Usually they they.

Are pretty flexible when necessary, so.

I would like to adapt Myra. Yeah, that's something happened to me actually last semester and during finals week. It was very stressful. Alot of things to do an it is these agencies are they know we are students and yeah they were very flexible. You know talk to my supervisor and let you know. Is it possible that I can switch one of the days that I usually work or another day after my final or things like that.

And they will always say yeah, don't worry, we know you're good you you you do your job and we don't worry just let us know when you come so very very flexible that's that's a good thing.

Yeah, definitely, I agree.

Alright, are there any other questions or any questions that I may have missed? I know we're right at the time so I don't want to keep anyone too long, but did we miss any questions?

Anything you'd like to ask?

Not seeing any well if you do have any questions that we may have missed, please feel free to email me. My emails listed here and if you are considering any other program specifically the Environmental Science program is within the College of Public Affairs and Administration and throughout the rest of this week they're actually doing webinars themselves every day except tomorrow at noon. So if you're curious about any of the other academic programs within the College of Public Affairs and Administration, you can tune into that.

Any of those you need to register online, but any of those can give you some more answers on other programs within this specific college, but it was great chatting with you, Angie. It was great to hear all these questions and we look forward to hopefully seeing some of you all with us here in the future.

Thank you so much and thank you so much for everybody for joining.

Yeah alright. Have a great day everyone.

Bye.

Hi.