The application period for the 2023-2024 cohort is now closed!
WaterWRLD (Water as a platform for Workforce Readiness and Leadership Development) provides University of Arizona students with real-world work experience and community engagement opportunities, all while earning school credit and a paid stipend. Interns work directly with WMG staff, docents, volunteers, and partners on community-based conservation and environmental justice projects. The WaterWRLD internship program seeks talented people of all backgrounds - we value diversity of cultures, races and ethnicities, gender expressions, and abilities.
Interns will:
- Increase understanding of community-based conservation and river restoration opportunities for the Santa Cruz River Watershed, as well as engaging on urban ecology and environmental justice issues.
- Build relationships with WMG and other local environmental professionals, and work closely with one or more WMG staff mentors.
- Develop leadership, community outreach, and environmental education skills and experience.
- Complete 150 hours of internship work per semester, which averages to about 10 hours per week.
- Join weekly experiential education workshops on Friday afternoons in the fall from 3 - 5 p.m., learning alongside other interns and docents.
- All internships are paid, look at the position description to see compensation details.
WaterWRLD Internship Descriptions
Summer 2023 [May 13, 2023 - Aug. 18, 2023]
- Billingual Communications Intern (Full position description)
- Engage Tucson’s Latino/a/e communities in projects to create cooler, greener neighborhoods and steward our rivers and groundwater. We are partnering with UArizona's Student Engagement and Career Development for this summer opportunity, apply directly on handshake.
- Engage Tucson’s Latino/a/e communities in projects to create cooler, greener neighborhoods and steward our rivers and groundwater. We are partnering with UArizona's Student Engagement and Career Development for this summer opportunity, apply directly on handshake.
Summer 2023 - Fall 2023 [May 13, 2023 - Dec. 15, 2023]
Conservation Ecology Intern (Full position description)
- Assist in restoring the ecological and cultural role of beaver by updating methodology and implementing a binational beaver survey.
- Assist in restoring the ecological and cultural role of beaver by updating methodology and implementing a binational beaver survey.
- Environmental Education Intern (Full position description)
- Engage youth and their families in stewarding local water and developing sustainable living skills through our Family Saturday program.
- Engage youth and their families in stewarding local water and developing sustainable living skills through our Family Saturday program.
- River Run Network Education and Outreach (Full position description)
- Assist with community outreach, education, and advocacy, supporting the long-term goal to restore Tucson’s heritage of flowing creeks and rivers.
- Assist with community outreach, education, and advocacy, supporting the long-term goal to restore Tucson’s heritage of flowing creeks and rivers.
Fall 2023 - Spring 2024 [Aug. 25, 2023 - April 19, 2024]
- Community Engagement and Outreach Intern (Full position description)
- Provide support for the Build Your Own Basin (BYOB) educational workshops and community centered green infrastructure projects.
- Conservation Ecology Intern (Full position description)
- Assist in restoring the ecological and cultural role of beaver by updating methodology and implementing a binational beaver survey.
- Environmental Education Intern (Full position description)
- Engage youth and their families in stewarding local water and developing sustainable living skills through our Family Saturday program.
- River Run Network Education and Outreach (Full position description)
- Assist with community outreach, education, and advocacy, supporting the long-term goal to restore Tucson’s heritage of flowing creeks and rivers.
- Urban Sustainable Living (Full position description)
- Assist in the care and maintenance of green living systems at WMG's Living Lab, participate in our Build Your Own Basin (BYOB) program, and support community-centered green infrastructure.
Who is Eligible?
Undergraduate and Graduate students at the University of Arizona are eligible to apply. Students from any major or program are welcome. Students must be in good standing, with a 2.5 GPA or higher. Activities will be done in-person with virtual options if it's not safe to meet in person.
Have Questions?
Missed the Internship virtual panel, or just want to rewatch? Check out a recording on our YouTube channel now!
Application Instructions
Email your application packet directly to Julie Regalado at jregalado@watershedmg.org. Application packets should include the following:
- A one page résumé
- A complete WaterWRLD Application form
Applications due Sunday, April 9, 2023 at 11:59pm for both the Summer 2023 - Fall 2023 program and the Fall 2023 - Spring 2024 program. The earlier you submit your application, the more likely you are to be accepted into the program.
Staff Mentors
Lauren Monheim
River Run Network Program Manager
She/Her
Lauren has a B.S. in Watershed Hydrology and Management from the University of Arizona. As a Tucson native, Lauren has a passion for the environment and the community in this area and wants to continue spreading this excitement for nature, water and people through her work with the River Run Network. Lauren enjoys hiking, drinking coffee and reading in her spare time.
Julie Regalado
Education Program Director
She/They
Julie has over 30 years of experience teaching in experiential, place-based, embodied education both in the US and in Australia, where she lived for fifteen years. Julie made her way to Tucson in 2023, reconnecting to the Sonoran Desert near where she grew up (in San Bernardino, Ca), and the land of her father's family across the border in Sonora and Chihuahua. Early university studies in the sciences and work in a soils science lab evolved into a performing arts focus and Regalado was active in California in the modern dance world. Often working in non-formal settings, Julie brings a perspective encompassing a social-ecological and relational approach towards building more constructive relationships - human and more-than-human. She holds a BA in Liberal Studies from UC Riverside, a MFA in Dance from Mills College, and a MEd in Social Ecology from Western Sydney University, where she also recently completed a M.Res researching how a place-based embodied awareness practice might foster ecological consciousness. In her free time, she explores her new town of Tucson on foot and scrambles over boulders in the Dragoon Mountains. She loves cooking, eating, reading, gardening and speaks passable French and Spanish.
Andrea Salazar
Community Restoration Project Manager
She/They
Andrea Salazar is a native Sonorizonan and long time desert dweller. Her passion for conservation and sustainability is born out of a desire to live hopefully and not dejectedly. She believes in creating a more environmentally conscious and connected future and is excited about sharing that reality with others. She loves native plants, passive rainwater and greywater harvesting, chickens, and composting.
Luis Salgado
Green Infrastructure Project Manager
He/Him
Born and raised in the Colorado River Delta region, Luis always wondered why his native hometown of San Luis Río Colorado was named after a river that seldom flowed through there. As a result, Luis completed a B.S. degree in Environmental Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona in 2017. During his time at the university, Luis began to understand the complex relationship between rivers and their users, and decided to pursue a career that emphasizes community-centric, ecological approaches to educating the public about environmental issues of the Southwest and natural resource conservation. Luis is fluent in both Spanish and English, and you can find him reading, writing, cooking, or playing drums at home when he’s not digging through crates at record stores or looking for a good place to set up a hammock on top of a nearby mountain.
Catlow Shipek
Sr. Program Director
He/Him
Catlow Shipek is a founding member of Watershed Management Group. He received a MSc in Watershed Management from the University of Arizona. Catlow has over ten years of experience in applied watershed management, planning and policy specializing in urban applications like water harvesting, green infrastructure, stream restoration, and eco-sanitation. Catlow has worked on several successful local policy initiatives including Tucson's Green Streets Active Practice Guidelines, Tucson Water's residential rainwater rebate program, Tucson's residential greywater ordinance revision process, and through the Complete Streets Taskforce the adoption of Tucson's Complete Streets Policy. Catlow has served on the Citizens’ Water Advisory Committee for Tucson Water including Chair of the Conservation & Education subcommittee and on the University of Arizona's School of Natural Resource and the Environment's advisory board. Catlow currently serves on the Complete Streets Coordinating Council following the 2019 adoption of the Complete Streets policy. Catlow's passion is to link people to their local environment for improved stewardship and prosperity.