MACO Summer Internships
Marine and Coastal Opportunities offers paid summer internships for undergraduate students, focusing on interdisciplinary topics of the ocean and coasts. Our internships are with a variety of mentor organizations spanning the Oregon coastline.
View our Summer 2025 internship offerings below.
Communications for Marine Conservation
Location: Oregon Coast Aquarium; Newport, OR
Mentor Organization: Oregon Coast Aquarium
Description: The intern will work with the education department of the Oregon coast Aquarium to research, create and pilot on-site messaging on two of our main conservation topics: sustainable fisheries and plastics. They will work closely with the education team to conduct research, implement messaging and engage with guests. The student must be comfortable and confident in approaching guests to request participation in the activities and collect verbal data.
Public Engagement with the Climate Monitoring Station
Location: Hatfield Marine Science Center; Newport, OR
Mentor Organization: Climate Monitoring Station
Description: Work with the Climate Monitoring Station (CMS) to create an interactive exhibit in the Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center that communicates water quality data to the public. The CMS collects depth (tide), temperature, salinity, pH, oxygen, nitrate, turbidity and bulk phytoplankton concentrations from the estuary floor of Yaquina Bay. The intern will also log data from the R/V Taani into a website and scientific reports. Experience in computer science, web design, engineering or graphic design would be helpful in project development and operation.
Fisheries and Beaver-based Restoration and Education
Location: MidCoast Watersheds Council; Newport, OR
Mentor Organization: MidCoast Watersheds Council
Description: The intern will work with the MidCoast Watersheds Council to localize the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT), to collect data to help us better understand beaver use of the coast range, coastal ecosystems, and estuaries. They will calibrate the model to these novel ecosystems to prioritize places on the landscape where beaver restoration may be most successful for Coho salmon recovery. The intern may participate in ground restoration projects and monitoring efforts such as estuary bird surveys, water quality monitoring, and eDNA.
Science Communication and Public Outreach
Location: Hatfield Marine Science Center; Newport, OR
Mentor Organization: Marine Mammal Institute
Description: Work with the Marine Mammal Institute this summer as a science communication and public outreach intern! The intern will have a variety of projects available to them, which can be tailored to fit your interests and skills, including copy writing, graphic design, marketing, tabling, social media, photography, and video creation. Your creativity, design skills, and strategic thinking will help to raise awareness of the Marine Mammal Institute, engage donors, recruit diverse students, and share science with the interested public.
MACO Summer 2025 Internship applications are now open!
The Marine and Coastal Opportunities office is pleased to offer a variety of internships every year, focusing on interdisciplinary topics of the ocean and coasts. These are 10 weeks in length, starting June 16, 2025, and ending August 22, 2025. Start and end dates may slightly vary, depending on the internship.
Application & More Information
Location- Newport, Oregon. Each individual internship will be assigned to a different agency within Newport, OR.
Housing – Summer group housing is provided. This group field housing is at Hatfield Marine Science Center.
Hours – Summer Internships are full-time commitments, typically 40-hours per week. Within or in addition to this commitment, interns are expected to participate in program activities such as field trips plus perform work to fulfill scholarly expectations such as project plan writing, poster creation, and presentation prep and delivery.
Compensation -- Interns will receive compensation as an Oregon State University hourly student worker. Total salary depends on the internship. Typical salary range is $4,700 - $6,250 for a 10-week period internship commitment. Group housing is provided by the program in addition to the salary.
Eligibility - This internship is open to all currently enrolled OSU students and Oregon Community College students (OSU dual enrollment program or degree partnership program preferred). To be a student worker, in summer, you cannot be enrolled in more than 5 credits of summer classes to work 40 hours. Eligible students will need to be enrolled in 6+ credits in Spring and Fall terms 2025 to be eligible for summer term-off employment. International undergraduate students will need to be enrolled in 12+ credits in Spring and Fall terms of 2025.
All interns are expected to write a project plan/proposal, create a poster, and present their project (poster and oral presentation) at both the Coastal internship symposium and a public meeting or conference after the internship, all under the guidance of a mentor. Interns will also be required to participate in group check-ins, field trips, seminars, professional development and other group activities.
Some positions require driving a University, agency or personal vehicle, thus intern must possess and maintain a current valid driver’s license in their state of residence to be eligible for use of University vehicles. Additional requirements may apply, if incumbent chooses to use personal vehicle or a rented or leased vehicle.
Applications are due at 11:59 PM on Sunday, March 23, 2025. Interns will be selected in late March or early April.
For more information: Academic Advisor, Cynthia Leonard - [email protected]
OSU seeks diversity as a source of enrichment for our university community. We are an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer, and particularly encourage applications from members of historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, women, individuals with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQ community members, and others who demonstrate the ability to help us achieve our vision of a diverse and inclusive community.
