SCEC Internships

SCEC's Internships Program has provided meaningful research experiences and resources for over 700 undergraduate students since 1994. These internships enable undergraduate students to work alongside SCEC scientists on a variety of research projects during the summer and/or academic year. SCEC Interns are recruited from institutions all over the nation, as well as students from local community and state colleges. Interns have the opportunity to conduct research in a variety of fields related to earthquake science, including paleoseismic field investigations, remote sensing, risk mitigation, seismic velocity modeling, effects of earthquakes on natural resources such as groundwater, science education, information technology, and earthquake engineering.

Interns showcase their summer research at the SCEC Annual Meeting and are supported to participate in other professional conferences such as SACNAS’ National Diversity in STEM Conference and the AGU Fall Meeting. Interns are trained on how to engage in a research conference, which is important so they develop a sense of identity and community within the geosciences. SCEC’s summer research experiences are successful in recruiting and retaining students from underrepresented groups who are less likely to be exposed to geoscience.

SCEC offers the following internship programs for college undergraduate students:

SCEC/SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience) interns are primarily juniors or seniors, and most projects are best suited for students majoring in earth science or a related field. SURE interns are paired one-on-one with a SCEC scientist at that researcher's institution or field site, to work within that scientist's field of specialty.

SCEC/SOURCES (Supported Opportunities for Undergraduates and Researchers to Collaborate on Earthquake Science) interns are remotely-mentored and gain a valuable research experience regardless of geographic location or availability of local researchers.

SCEC/USEIT (Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology)  interns work on collaborative teams at SCEC headquarters at the University of Southern California and conduct computer science research to benefit earthquake science.