NWPS Welcomes New Intern From Germany

Yesterday Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society welcomed our newest international volunteer intern: Christine Engel from Mannheim, Germany. Thanks to a wonderful partnership with global exchange placement company INTERNeX, Christine will be volunteering with NWPS until mid November in a general placement capacity helping out with office administration, fundraising and program support.

Volunteers are the backbone of our organization. Thanks to the generosity of caring people like Christine, we are able to continue carrying out our mandate of wildlife preservation in BC.

Here’s what Christine has to say:

Beautiful British Columbia has such an amazing landscape and wildlife and I am highly motivated to preserve these by joining and supporting the NWPS team.
I have just graduated from university in Germany and did my masters degree in business mathematics. Before I start working, I want to focus on topics that really matter and concern all of us. We should not forget about the important things in life and that’s why I am here: to contribute and to make an impact.
Hopefully I will be of great support!
I am really looking forward to the last summer weeks and the wonderful fall here in Vancouver and at NWPS.

NWPS is fortunate to have hosted many international interns as well as local co-op students over the years. As a small organization we are always in need of dedicated volunteer support. While we typically have interns and co-op students doing a general placement, helping out with all aspects of our business, positions and specific skills development are wide-ranging and flexible. We are able to accommodate most requests for volunteer/unpaid positions so please get in touch if you would like to work with us.

The general placement position provides you the opportunity to get a good sense of what it is like to work for a small non-profit charity. Dipping your toes into every aspect of the business gives you wide-ranging experience so you can learn what you like and dislike, where your strengths and weaknesses lay, and it gives you the necessary experience for working in a small non-profit where everyone is required to pitch in with anything that needs to get done. During a general internship/co-op placement at NWPS, no two days are the same. While you will be given specific responsibilities to carry out and/or projects to manage, one day you may be asked to help out with administrative tasks such as preparing tax receipts and processing donations, and the next you’ll be out in the field planting trees. The next writing a grant application. The next creating social media posts and writing content for a newsletter. The next planning an event, and the next helping an Educator lead a nature walk. The possibilities are endless. It is a great opportunity for people trying to figure out what it is they wish to pursue in their careers, and getting an in-depth look at what it is like and what it takes to successfully work at a small charity.

Thanks to the Canada Summer Jobs grant, we sometimes get funding to hire a summer student for a paid position. Funding decisions aren’t typically confirmed until late April so we are unable to hire before that. The position we typically hire for is a Community Outreach Coordinator. If you would like to be considered for the position, please email your cover letter and resume as a single document to execdirector@northwestwildlife.com before May 1.

All of our interns and students have thoroughly enjoyed their time with us, and gone on to great new roles with the experience gained working with our organization. Some of the wonderful people we have recently hosted include:

• • A Wildlife Conservation student from Nottingham Trent University in England who went on to become our Wildlife Education Manager in Victoria.

• • A BSc Natural Resources Conservation student from the University of British Columbia who went on to work in bear conservation.

• • An Environmental Health Master’s student from Sweden who went on to work as an environmental technician back in Sweden.

• • An Ecological Restoration student from BCIT who later managed our wetland rehabilitation project before moving on to work in environmental sciences.

If you would like to volunteer/intern/work with us, please email execdirector@northwestwildlife.com.