DOINews: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Career Discovery Internship Program Receives Diversity Award

Lamar Gore, acting chief of Diversity and Civil Rights, Northeast Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, on Oct. 15 accepts the The Wildlife Society's 2012 Diversity Award for the USFWS' Career Discovery Internship Program. Photo by USFWS

Learn about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Career Discovery Internship Program from the interns, themselves here. View photos from USFWS' CDIP orientation for 2012 here. Photos by USFWS.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Career Discovery Internship Program recently won The Wildlife Society's 2012 Diversity Award. The program, which began in the USFWS' Northeast Region, seeks to build a more inclusive workforce in the wildlife profession. Now in its fifth year, it has grown to include states within four USFWS geographic regions, including Alaska.

With a focus on hiring of culturally and ethnically diverse freshman and sophomore students, the USFWS Career Discover Internship Program features:

• Recruitment and training;
• Empowerment of participants;
• Hands-on training opportunities;
• Bonding experiences for participants and mentors; and
• The great satisfaction of achieving personal intellectual and physical goals.

In recognizing the USFWS Career Discover Internship Program with its diversity award, The Wildlife Society's noted: “Overwhelming commitment of USFWS staff has made the experiences of participants memorable and life-changing.”

Based on comments from students in the program, they agree. Moreover USFWS staff themselves have benefited from the diversity of students who participate. Thus far, of participants in the program from 2008-2011, 19 percent have advanced into staff positions within the USFWS. More than 140 students have participated in the program in the last four years.

Submitted by: Northeast Region, USFWS
Oct. 29, 2012

Important Links:

oneINTERIOR Diversity page
USFWS-Northeast Region
USFWS- Career Discovery Internship Program
USFWS-Video on Career Discovery Internship Program
USFWS-Pictures of Career Discovery Internship Program