Hutch Hutchinson, a Master of Environmental Management (MEM) and Master of Forestry concurrent degree student, spent his summer as a landscape conservation intern with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC). 

Hutchinson is pursuing concentrations in Terrestrial and Freshwater Environments and in Community ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ment and Environmental Justice.

Each year, Nicholas School of the Environment students complete internships with organizations around the world. These summer experiences provide valuable opportunities to gain career-related experience and build a professional network. 

Duke Environment recently caught up with Hutchinson to learn more about his experience. 

What aspects of the experience did you find most rewarding or memorable and why?

Field researcher smiles in a pine forest while holding up a sample tube during ecological fieldwork.

The variety of experiences I was exposed to, because my hope was to get fieldwork experience and understand if it was something I was capable of/wanting to do more often than not when I graduate. I loved it!

I was wading in culverts measuring barriers to fish passage, conducting grassland bird surveys in the Piedmont, collecting seeds and identifying new populations of rare species in the Sandhills.

How did the coursework and resources at the Nicholas School prepare you for success in this role as well as your internship search?

I feel like my first semester in Forestry really gave me a lot of technical skills and lingo needed to fit right into working at the WRC.

Doing the in the spring helped me learn a lot about flooding and infrastructure, and some about hydrology, which helped me ask questions and be conversational in the field and helpful in the office when doing research.

Did you collaborate with any Nicholas School alumni? If so, how did those connections add to your summer experience?

Yes, my main supervisor was Jacob Freedman, who earned a Master of Environmental Management from the Nicholas School in 2024. It definitely felt like I could ask him anything, and he was very eager to help and understanding. It honestly did not guarantee me the job – I was overlooked on the first round. But maybe it helped me be the second pick? And I have no problem with that.

How has this internship influenced your career aspirations? Did it confirm or change your professional goals in any way?

I learned that it is not uncommon to be able to hop in the car and get some air conditioning while conducting fieldwork, and that I am not cut out for a job like a sawyer or something where I am doing hard labor in the heat every day. Maybe like, every once in a while only.

Ultimately, it confirmed I am going in the right direction, and that I want to take a hydrology class while I’m here. And it will be very helpful when I am applying for technician jobs so I can make sure I don’t apply for things that could get me overheated because I have a heat intolerance type of disability.

 

Two field researchers pose beside a duckweed-covered pond; one holds a long-handled sampling net.