Pathway to the Skies
Pathways to the Skies: CCC2NAU Internship Program
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Information for Interested Students Tab Open
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Information for Interested Mentors Tab Closed
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Available Research Projects Tab Closed
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Our CCC2NAU Program Partnership Tab Closed
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Meet the Program Team Tab Closed
Information for Interested Students Accordion Open
Program Details
The Pathway to the Skies: CCC, NAU Partnership offers stipend-paid internship opportunities for CCC STEM students enrolled in the CCC2NAU program pursuing STEM degrees. Students are provided front line research training through a broad mentor pool. The target audience is students who are in their second year at CCC, planning to transition to NAU for their third year of their undergraduate studies. Selected interns gain valuable research experiences working with faculty, research scientists, postdocs, graduate students, and/or other undergraduates. All students supported by this program will be placed in active research groups/labs and will have access to all research equipment and materials as full participants in their research groups.
Our program runs Fall through Spring semester. Interns work up to 10 hours/week for 30 weeks. There is one time sheet for interns, and this is online through NAU Louie. This is where interns will login and submit their time weekly. Online times sheets are approved every week. Students must input info online in real time as they work. Mentors provide guidance to student on their research project and help their student with preparation of presentation for the Undergraduate Expo & Symposium which takes place each spring semester at the High Country Conference Center in April. Students can present their work as an exhibit, performance, oral presentation, or poster presentation. Students are responsible for submitting a completed registration form online by end of March for the Symposium.
Program Schedule
- Late August: Program Start
- September: Student/Mentor Orientation
- January: Mid-year Mentor/Student check in
- March: Guidelines for preparing for the Undergraduate Expo & Symposium
- April: Undergraduate Expo & Symposium
- Late April: Last Day of Internship
Internship Requirements & Eligibility
As an intern you will partner with world-renowned scientists on some of the most important research and space missions. Curiosity, motivation, professionalism, good communication, and a commitment to learn and contribute are a must. Your mentor is committed to providing you with the opportunity to broaden your educational goals with a rich, hands-on experience where you will learn and participate in the research process from start to finish. You will be encouraged to understand the research process, learn the fundamentals necessary to succeed, and evolve as a student going into a STEM career fields.
Students must be:
- Citizens or permanent residents of the United States
- CCC2NAU student, planning to transition to NAU to complete their undergraduate studies in a STEM Major
Every year NAU showcases its undergraduate research, design, and creative work at the Undergraduate Expo & Symposium at the end of April. You will be expected to present your work at professional-style poster sessions and receive feedback from judges.
Matching Students to Projects
Once your application is received mentors will rank it based on the content and quality of your responses to three open-ended questions. GPA, motivation for applying, interest-level, potential, and involvement (work, volunteerism, other activities) are also considered. Experience is NOT a factor in the selection process as the internship is designed to provide first research opportunities.
Internship Locations Include:
- NAU’s Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science
- NAU’s Center for Ecosystem Science and Society
- NAU’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
- Lowell Observatory
Project Duration & Payrate
- Students who submit applications and who are selected as interns will begin to work in NAU research settings at the start of the NAU Fall Semester
- Students will work 10 hours/week
- Pay rate is $15.50/hour
- The standard undergraduate work year is typically Aug-May (Fall & Spring Semesters) at NAU
- Total awarded hours per project is 300 hours which equals roughly 30 weeks at 10 hours/week
Information for Interested Mentors Accordion Closed
Program Details
The Pathway to the Skies: CCC, NAU Partnership offers stipend-paid internship opportunities for CCC STEM students enrolled in the CCC2NAU program pursuing STEM degrees. Students are provided front line research training through a broad mentor pool. The target audience is students who are in their second year at CCC, planning to transition to NAU for their third year of their undergraduate studies. Selected interns gain valuable research experiences working with faculty, research scientists, postdocs, graduate students, and/or other undergraduates. All students supported by this program will be placed in active research groups/labs and will have access to all research equipment and materials as full participants in their research groups.
Our program runs Fall through Spring semester. Interns work up to 10 hours/week for 30 weeks. There is one time sheet for interns, and this is online through NAU Louie. This is where interns will login and submit their time weekly. Online times sheets are approved every week. Students must input info online in real time as they work. Mentors provide guidance to student on their research project and help their student with preparation of presentation for the Undergraduate Expo & Symposium which takes place each spring semester at the High Country Conference Center in April. Students can present their work as an exhibit, performance, oral presentation, or poster presentation. Students are responsible for submitting a completed registration form online by end of March for the Symposium.
Mentorship Requirements & Eligibility
Mentors commit to providing interns the opportunity to broaden their educations with a rich, hands-on experience with the full process of inquiry and discovery. As a mentor you will work to provide an environment where your intern can learn and experience the research process from start to finish. You will act as a guide, encouraging your intern to understand the discovery process, learn the fundamentals necessary to succeed, and ultimately drive the experience mentoring your intern in terms of work guidance, but also in terms of helping them evolve as students going into STEM career fields.
Mentors must:
- Apply for Research Mentorship by submitting and Online Application by fall deadline
- Undergo “best practices” trainings focused on advising and EDI issues prior to intern placement
Project Funding & Duration
Selected students:
- Work 10 hours/week (the standard undergraduate work year – Fall & Spring Semesters)
- Are paid $15.50/hour (which is the current minimum wage in Coconino County)
- Total awarded hours per project is 300 hours (30 weeks at 10 hours/week)
- Supply/item/material requests up to a specific limit are allowed per internship/project
Matching Student to Projects
The goal is to provide a new and rich experience to the applicant. Mentors are then responsible for reviewing all intern applications based on the content and quality of the applicant’s responses to three open-ended questions. GPA, motivation for applying, interest-level, potential, and involvement (work, volunteerism, other activities) should also be considered. (Experience should not a factor in the selection process as the internship is designed to provide first research opportunities).
Available Research Projects Accordion Closed
Student Application Instructions
- Scroll down this page to view the list of available internships and links to project descriptions below to view ALL openings.
- Click the “Project Number” link of each project you are interested in to read through the research project proposal description submitted by the mentor.
- Identify the internship(s) you are interested in by number.
- Click the student application button on the top of the main page, fill out the online student application, and submit.
Student Application
- Student Internship Offers are extended throughout the fall semester.
- Students who apply to other Government Funded Internship Programs must ultimately choose which funding award to accept.
- Students can NOT accept multiple funding sources for their research projects when accepting Pathways to the Skies, NSF Funding.
Available Projects
| Mentor(s) | Location | Project Title | Project Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Trilling | NAU Main Campus | Solar System Astronomy | Project 1 |
| Dr. Gowanlock, Dr. Trilling | NAU Main Campus | Astroinformatics | Project 2 |
| Dr. Edwards, Dr. Goetz, Dr. Sankey | NAU Main Campus | Planetary Geology and Remote Sensing | Project 3 |
| Dr. Bowker, Dr. Doughty, Dr. Richardson | NAU Main Campus | Astrobiology | Project 4 |
| Dr. Hanley, Dr. Loffler, Dr. Lindberg | NAU Main Campus | Astrochemistry and Laboratory Astrophysics | Project 5 |
| Dr. Shafer | NAU Main Campus | Mechanical Engineering and Landing on Mars | Project 6 |
| Dr. Duke, Dr. Jarvis, Dr. Traustadottir | NAU Main Campus | Physiology and Human Spaceflight | Project 7 |
Our CCC2NAU Program Partnership Accordion Closed
About the Partnership
This initiative has created a pathway for recruiting 20 CCC2NAU students into paid internships working in research labs at NAU. Working with multidisciplinary collaborators across both institutions, this program will bring underrepresented minority (URM) students into the program, enabling them to carry out research on a range of topics. This program leverages a number of existing resources at NAU in addition to the CCC2NAU. These ongoing projects demonstrates NAU’s capacity for supporting students and programs dedicated to research and URM success. There is currently no other program that is specifically targeted to URM retention through research, making this partnership unique and complementary on campus.
Expected Outcomes
Research outcomes
Student participants will engage in research in range of astronomy and astronomy-related topics. Each research project will be carefully scoped to be appropriate for undergraduate students, and the students will make significant contributions to novel research. Therefore, the research outcomes from this project will be a series of papers, conference presentations, and the like, on which our student participants will be listed as co-authors. Each student will present their work at NAU’s annual spring Undergraduate Expo & Symposium.
Increasing diversity in astronomy through increased retention
A primary goal of this program is to use research opportunities to increase retention of URMs in astronomy and astronomy related fields. Due to the targeted nature of our recruiting strategy, the student participants in this program will be URMs. Thus, because the overall URM numbers in astronomy are so low, this program will have a significant impact on our student body and, in the future, on the field of astronomy. Through frontline research experience and gaining technical skills, these students will be strong applications for advanced degrees and/or jobs in astronomy.
Increasing diversity in STEM
A number of our students may use their astronomy-related research experience as springboards into advanced degrees and/or jobs in other STEM areas. This outcome would again have important social impact.
Broader Impacts
Individual impact
This program will provide paid internships for 20 students across two years. These students will gain research experience and, hopefully, increase the likelihood these students will stay in STEM and capitalize on their research experience to obtain good jobs and/or future schooling opportunities. The goals of this project include increasing retention of students, using research as the critical tool, and providing future opportunities for these students.
Societal impact
A goal of this project is to increase the participation of URM students in astronomy and, more broadly, STEM fields. This project will bring 20 URM students into astronomy oriented research labs at NAU. This will have a significant near-term impact on the demographics of these labs and our department and a long-term impact on increasing diversity in astronomy or other STEM fields.
Meet the Program Team Accordion Closed
Program Management
Dr. David E Trilling, Program Director, Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science
Paloma Rose Davidson, M.A., Program Assistant Manager, Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science
Program Evaluation & Assessment
Dr. Nena E Bloom, Evaluation Lead, Vice President for Research
Hosava Cameron Kretzmann, MPH., Evaluation Associate, Vice President for Research
Collaborators
Dr. Christopher Edwards, Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science
Dr. Mark Loeffler, Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science
Dr. Tyler Robinson, Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science
Dr. Jennifer Hanley, Lowell Observatory
Dr. Matthew Bowker, School of Forestry
Dr. Scott Goetz, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
Dr. Andrew Richardson, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
Dr. Christopher Doughty, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
Dr. Teki Sankey, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
Dr. Michael Gowanlock, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
Dr. Gerrick Lindberg, Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science
Dr. Michael Shafer, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Tinna Traustadottirm, Department of Biological Sciences
Dr. JJ Duke, Department of Biological Sciences
Dr. Sara Jarvis, Department of Biological Sciences