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Two interns smiling and posing in front of the U.S Capitol Building on a rainy day.

We’ll help you find the path to your perfect career

Finding a career that brings meaning to your life and can help impact the lives of others is often a process. Our goal in CNRE is to provide you with the experiences that will become the defining moments of your career journey, like visiting Washington, D.C., while completing an internship with the Virginia Water Resources Research Center.

Ross Cooper and Nizhoni Tallas used their internships to explore how water informs environmental justice issues and attended a meeting of national water leaders. “To come back to the Hill as someone nearing a bachelor’s degree in water was a great experience. Nizhoni and I were the only two interns at the meeting, so we were able to talk with them about our research and make some useful connections,” Cooper recalled.

You can take advantage of the same opportunities. In CNRE, you’ll receive guidance from professors and advisors, find opportunities for building success skills, and start building career networks for success.

Start your career planning

It’s never too early to get started on preparing for your career, whether it’s thinking about a summer internship or starting to investigate full-time job opportunities for after graduation.

Get started by learning what’s available in CNRE and through Virginia Tech Career and Professional Development. Next, reach out to John Freeborn, director of employer relations, at freeborn@vt.edu to learn more about opportunities with our partner employers and how to best navigate your internship and career searches.

From Amazon to The Weather Channel, CNRE graduates are making an impact

Students entering the College of Natural Resources and Environment have big dreams, and we are here to help you find the company, agency, or non-profit that will be a springboard for your work in conservation, sustainability, industry, or more.

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  • 3M
  • Amazon
  • American Biofuels
  • Bartlett Tree Services
  • Dominion Energy
  • E & J Gallo Winery
  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Esri
  • Georgia Pacific
  • Geospatial Intelligence Service
  • Google
  • IKEA
  • International Paper
  • NASA
  • National Park Service
  • National Weather Service
  • The Nature Conservancy
  • Newell Brands
  • NOAA
  • PepsiCo
  • Proctor & Gamble
  • Smithsonian
  • U.S. Air Force
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
  • U.S. Forest Service
  • U.S. Geological Survey
  • U.S. State Department
  • Virginia Department of Forestry
  • Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
  • Virginia Department of Recreation and Conservation
  • The Weather Channel
  • WestRock
  • Weyerhaeuser

Are you an employer? We want to partner with you!

John Freeborn

The college is committed to building strong relationships with our forest industry and natural resources partners. As a central point of contact, John Freeborn, director of employer relations, assists employers with recruiting students for internships and other career opportunities, arranges campus visits, and provides information about campus resources. John also coordinates the CNRE Career Fairs.

Contact John at at 540-231-1138 or freeborn@vt.edu.

Take a job on a test run with an internship

Internships are great ways to see if a career is the right fit, learn real-world job skills, and connect with a potential future employer. In fact, a Michigan State University study found that employers tend to hire about 50 percent of interns as full-time employees.

CNRE students have helped set themselves up for career success by interning at locations ranging from the Baltimore/Washington Office of the National Weather Service to the Harvard Forest in Pelham, Massachusetts. 

Want to learn more? Find out why you should consider an internship, review our three-step guide to help get started, and check our list of past internship sites.