Oxbow Meadows Internships

Career Training and Hands-on Experiences

Are you passionate about the environment and want to make a difference?  Spend the semester at Oxbow Meadows as an intern to gain real world experience, college credit, and career building skills.  

Internships are open to all backgrounds and majors. 

No matter your career goals—education, nonprofit management, marketing, science, conservation, veterinary medicine, or community leadership—Oxbow internships provide the chance to build valuable skills, gain professional experience, and make a difference in our community and environment.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

Internship Application

Intern Qualifications

Internships are open to any and all college students. You do not need prior experience in your selected area. We do ask for the minimum qualifications from applicants: 

• Must be reliable, professional and to work independently.
• Effective communicator
• Positive attitide
• Interest in learning and gaining new skills
• Passionate about hands-on learning
• Must be current Columbus State University student
• Must commit to minimum 8 hours a week or more if course requirement
• Must be available some Saturdays, depending on internship selected
• Currently, Oxbow does not offer paid internships.

Internships are open to all majors and do not require any prior experience. We ask that you be interested, excited, and ready to learn.

Animal Care

Support reptiles, amphibians, and aquatic care; shadow keepers; gain hands-on husbandry and handling experience; assist with enrichment and record-keeping. Ideal for students pursuing careers in wildlife, natural resources, or veterinary medicine. Interns will also gain experience presenting wildlife and animal presentation to a variety of audiences. 

Minimum of 100 hours per semester.

Wildlife Rehabilitation with Savage Hart

Gain hands-on experience in wildlife rehabilitation through Oxbow's partnership with Savage Hart. Interns may assist with wildlife care, conservation projects, and educational programming while learning about the rehabilitation process.

This internship takes place primarily at Savage Hart rather than Oxbow Meadows and is especially suited for students interested in wildlife rehabilitation, veterinary medicine, wildlife biology, or conservation.

Note: applicants must commit to 150 hours. All interns will be interviewed first with Oxbow Meadows and again with Savage Hart.

Education Projects

Interns receive training from Oxbow staff to assist with and teach a variety of programs for visitors of all ages. Interns may also help develop educational projects and gain experience working with Oxbow’s education animals. Must committee to a minimum of 25 hours per semester.

Types of education interns:

• School Programs
  • Assist and lead field trips to Prek-12th grade students.
  • Schedule: Tuesday-Friday from 9:30-1:30
• Afterschool
  • Assist and lead programming at afterschool programs. 
  • Schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday from 2:30-5:30
• DiscoveryGuide
  • Assist with programs and help visitors explore Oxbow through hands-on activities, exhibits, and nature-based learning.
  • Schedule: Saturdays either from 9:30-12:30 or 1:30-4:30
• New Program Development
  • Help create new educational activities, teaching materials, interpretive displays, or visitor resources. Projects may be tailored to the intern’s interests, academic requirements, and current needs at Oxbow.

Trail & Land Management

Gain hands-on experience caring for Oxbow's trails, gardens, and natural areas. Interns receive training in trail maintenance, horticulture, native plants, invasive species management, habitat stewardship, and seasonal land-management projects. Interns will also gain experience working and leading volunteers.

Must be available on some Saturdays for volunteer groups.

Communications & Visitor Engagement

Interns will receive training to communicate professionally and effectively with a variety of audiences. Interns will assist with center operations ranging from interacting with visitors, social media management, graphic design, archiving, information signs, and basic maintenance tasks.

Research & Conservation

Gain experience with environmental monitoring, field research, data collection, and conservation projects at Oxbow Meadows. Interns work alongside staff on active projects and may assist with collecting, organizing, and interpreting environmental data. Projects may include: Bluebird Monitoring, BirdWeather data collection and analysis, Motus bird tracking, Water quality monitoring, and other seasonal conservation and community-science projects.

Past Internship Projects:

• Creating interpretative signage and display in River Room
• New program development, Nature Babies and Knee-High Naturalist
• Natural History interpretative displays focusing on native wildlife and Fish and Wildlife conservation
• Water quality sampling of Oxbow and Columbus ponds
  Animal care for pre-veterinarian experience
• Theater Education majors producing, directing, and staring in children theater shows
• Building solar panels for BirdWeather Pucs recording bird data in the outdoors
• Designing and planting a native pollinator garden
• Researching alligator bellowing 
   

2025 Intern Feature

The following highlights a 2025 internship project.

Youtube Video:

Oxbow Meadows Internship Experience